


Supernatural Investigation Unit

by Menfinske



Category: Rammstein
Genre: Alternate Universe, Investigations, M/M, Slow Build, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:06:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22828396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Menfinske/pseuds/Menfinske
Summary: Christoph Schneider works for the Supernatural Investigations Unit in Berlin along with his four teammates when they are assigned a mysterious fifth teammate. They train and welcome him to the team before they are sent to Hamburg to help unearth a rather large criminal network that deals mostly with narcotic on a supernatural basis.
Relationships: Oliver Riedel/Christoph Schneider
Comments: 9
Kudos: 30





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone!
> 
> Finally I'm uploading this story! It's been in the works for quite a while and I've almost finished, so with updating it weekly I should be able to finish the story without interrupting the weekly updates.  
> Very likely this will lead to another story. I've already written the setup in this one, because I'm very excited about continuing it. I really like writing in this universe where I can write about supernatural elements without it getting the main role too much.  
> I do not have a proofreader and English is not my first language, so even though I don't think it's annoyingly full of mistakes, some mistakes can be made. I hope that it doesn't bother anyone.
> 
> They're inspired by Ich Will and so that's the look I've got in mind for them here.
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy it!
> 
> //Edit: There is now a page where you can give Rammstein prompt ideas. Anyone can visit and give ideas and anyone can fill the prompts. So post them or browse them if you feel like it: https://rammfic.dreamwidth.org/288.html

“We’ve got a new blood,” Paul states as soon as all five of them are present.  
  
They’d been working with the Supernatural Investigation Unit (SIU) within the same team for nearly six years.  
  
Till, the only supernatural in the team until very recently, had taken up a job with the unit 27 years ago. As a phoenix, however, he’s currently younger than he was when he began.  
  
Flake and Richard had joined roughly at the same time, with just six weeks apart, eleven years ago. Flake had been a cynic recruited by Till after he’d found the man living with a bunch of Fae he turned out to be immune to.  
  
Richard had never elaborated on why he’d taken the job, but it certainly seemed as if he’d suffered some trauma at the hands of supernaturals. Schneider hadn’t personally seen it, but Till has told him there was a period where they discussed firing Richard for the hatred he appeared to have for any supernatural being. Fortunately he’d cooled down before it came to getting fired. During a mission that had gone south eight months ago, one of the few missions he ran with a different team, he’d been transformed into a vampire. He’d been very sour about it at first, threatening to kill literally everyone for a month. It appears as if he’s been getting a little more used to it, however.  
  
Paul had joined nine years ago, exchanging his police uniform for the SUI after he’d been witness to a bank robbery pulled off by a werewolf clan who apparently greatly needed the money. He’d gotten away unharmed aside from a broken wrist where one of the werewolves had twisted the gun from his hands, but he had definitely wanted to protect people from criminal supernaturals after witnessing just how dangerous they could be.  
  
Schneider himself had been the last to join six years ago. Not for any desire to work with supernaturals, in all honesty. Schneider was pretty neutral about some of the problems that played between humans and supernaturals living in the same world. He’d been transferred from the military after he’d shown to have good aptitude for dealing with the supernatural.  
  
“Do we now?" Richard drawls. “Why? We’ve been a team with the five of us for years. Does the captain suddenly not trust us now that two of us have been- compromised?” he drawls the last word even more than the rest of the sentence.  
  
“I doubt he’d have waited eight months for that,” Schneider points out with an arched eyebrow. “Not to mention that he assumed we would apprehend you the moment you step out of line.”  
  
“Would you now? You couldn’t even catch me,” Richard snorts. Rather than protesting Richard’s claim by pointing out they’ve always gone up against creatures with benefits over them, Paul brushes over it.  
  
“Guy named Oliver. I’d say fresh out of the police academy but- he’s a tad old to have completed it only now. He’s 26,” Paul states, reading from the file in his hands.  
  
“Perhaps he’s insanely dumb and had to retry several times,” Flake chips in from where he’s sitting behind his desk, cleaning his shoes.  
  
“He wouldn’t be accepted here if he were insanely dumb. I think they learned their lesson when they hired you,” Paul retorts. Flake rolls his eyes. “I’d assume he started late, but it doesn’t say why. Not a lot of people who decide on that path later on. I was one of the oldest ones in my year, and I was 23 at the time.”  
  
“Ancient history then,” Richard chimes. Paul rolls his eyes and raises his middle finger towards Richard, who merely grins.  
  
“What? I get to make fun of your ages. I hate being a vampire, might as well make use of the advantages it gives me so it’s a little more bearable.” Paul doesn’t dignify it with a response, given that Richard seems to have gotten very used to being a vampire already.  
  
“In a few years when Flake, Paul and I will be old, limping and grey, we’ll expect you to take care of us to repay us for the numerous insults we’re sure to hear,” Schneider smirks.  
  
“Oh please no. It’s bad enough I’m stuck with you idiots here, I don’t want you in my house too,” Flake quickly chimes in.  
  
“Fine. Paul and me, then,” Schneider corrects his statement.  
  
“It’ll be more than a few years,” Richard points out.  
  
“With this job? Who knows, might take only a little longer,” Paul points out with a snort. “Schneider was out in some heavily-at-war area and came back with less scars than he’s garnered over the six years he’s worked here.”  
  
“Chicks dig scars,” Schneider easily shrugs it off.  
  
“Do chicks dig guys who can’t even see appreciate their beauty?” Flake quips in, referring to the fact Schneider only has one functional eye. Even though he hadn’t lost the function of his other eye during his time here, but while he’d still been in the military.  
  
“And I thought you liked dick,” Till drawls. Schneider gives him a wink as he leans over his desk.  
  
“I like yours. Let me lick it?” he jokes.  
  
“Cut it out, you two. New guy can come in any moment. Do you really want the first thing he hears to be your ridiculous flirting?” Paul chimes in, tossing a balled up piece of paper Till’s way. It erupts into flame before it arches back down towards Till and falls to ashes before touching anything. “Also, boss said not to do that in the office anymore. You already caused seven fires.”  
  
“And I put each and every single one out myself,” Till protests. “Fine- new guy. Anything else we need to know?”  
  
“He’s not human.”  
  
“Great. Neither are Richard and I. So what is he?”  
  
“It doesn’t say,” Paul answers.  
  
“What are you talking about, it doesn’t say?”  
  
“Exactly what I said, it doesn’t say.” Now everyone glances at Paul curiously.  
  
“I’m assuming we don’t get to tell the chief that he should file everything properly? Given the amount of times he made us redo the paperwork for missing some information,” Richard complains. “My file states I’m a vampire. Till’s states he’s a phoenix. Why does this dude get out of having it listed?”  
  
“I don’t know. Guess we’ll find out when he arrives,” Paul says, glancing at the clock over the door. “He’s scheduled to be here at around 11. Boss wanted to go over a few things with him first, though, so I suspect he’s going to be a little late.”  
  
“So we can take a coffee break,” Richard says, already getting up.  
  
“Cigarette break, more like,” Schneider says as he glances at Richard fishing the packet of cigarettes out of his coat. “How do you even still smoke? You don’t breathe anymore.”  
  
“Of course I breathe, you idiot. How am I talking otherwise?” Richard points out with an eyeroll. “Oh for fuck’s sake- Do we really still need him? He was hired as brawn. Between Till being immortal and able to control fire and me being immortal, fast and strong, do we really need the brawn? He’s dumb as hell.”  
  
“And yet you still can’t fire a gun straight if your life depended on it,” Schneider easily shoots back. “Not to mention that only one person on this team ever fucked up so bad he literally died from it. I’d say, yes, you need me to watch your back.”  
  
“I’ll bet you’d like to watch his front instead,” Till chimes up. Schneider rolls his eyes before he too gets up to follow Richard out of the office though, unlike Richard, he actually goes towards the breakroom for a coffee. 

  
  
It’s 20 past 11 when the door is opened by their boss, leading the new guy into the office. New guy looks rather out of place between their boss and Till, whom they must’ve run into when Till had gone for the toilet. Both of them are broadly built and heavily muscled, even if not incredibly tall. The new guy towers above them by a good head, but he’s rather lanky. Not to mention the strange markings on his body. While Schneider was indeed hired as brawn to back the team up, he had learned his fair share of supernatural things over the years. He doesn’t believe he’s ever heard of or seen those markings before.  
  
“Gentlemen, listen up,” chief states, stopping in the doorway with the new guy while Till goes to sit behind his desk. “This is Oliver. He’ll be joining your team. If you decide to pair up for the next assignments- Schneider, you take him. I trust you to have his back while he gets settled here.”  
  
“Of course, sir,” Schneider agrees.  
  
“Good. I’ve just given Till the reports that have come in this weekend. Get to it.” Paul, Flake and Till immediately focus on the reports that Till had indeed carried to his desk, while Richard merely considers the new guy from his place behind the desk. Schneider gets up.  
  
“Here, this desk is yours,” Schneider says, gesturing to the empty desk that- well, hadn’t been used in all the time that Schneider had worked for the unit anyway.  
  
“You’re Schneider, I imagine?” Oliver asks. He’s surprisingly soft-spoken given the in-your-face markings covering, as far as Schneider can tell and imagine anyway, everything but his face. His arms, his hands, even the back of his head is covered with them. As Schneider tries to see a pattern in there he can make out, he’s surprised when he realizes the markings shift and change.  
  
“Yes,” Schneider says.  
  
“Why would they pair the two of you up? If he were human I’d understand. I highly doubt he needs a bodyguard though. And you’re not exactly our top-detective.”  
  
“Afraid Paul might finally get you to suck his dick now that you’re paired up together?” Till drawls from where he’s getting up behind his desk. “Here. You and Paul can go investigate rumours of vampire bar recruiting unchecked donors,” Till tosses the file in Richard’s direction. “Try and blend in this time instead of just complaining about how you’re such a poor baby to have been turned.” Richard huffs, but follows Paul out the door before he can complain regardless.  
  
“What will the two of you have? Nest of pixies that needs to be cleared from a home or two werewolf clans in a territory war?” Schneider considers Oliver for a moment. Pixies are annoying but very manageable. A very common nuisance that Schneider generally takes care of by himself while the others are finding leads on whatever. Territory wars would be a much better indication of what they deal with, but- it’s not exactly Schneider’s specialty. He’s not much of a talker, let alone a conflict-solver.  
  
“Are those the only options?” Schneider asks instead. Till arches his brow.  
  
“Well- there’s also a gnome problem being reported by some farmers just at the edge of town. I think Oliver is rather- tall, to be going through the underground tunnels.”  
  
“It’s not a problem,” Oliver says before Schneider can even consider it. Schneider glances at him curiously, then shrugs and nods.  
  
“Alright. We’ll take it, then,” Schneider says, accepting the file from Till. He leads Oliver out of the office and into the parking garage, where he takes the wheel on autopilot. “Where to?”  
  
“Oh- uh,” Oliver appears caught off-guard, flipping the file open. “Messenburger Strasse,” Oliver reads, typing it into the navigation even as he says it. “Do we read the file on the road?”  
  
“Yeah. Out loud. I haven’t read it either,” Schneider responds.  
  
Oliver begins to read. There is little information on the actual location of the gnomes, which is unfortunate. It means that, should they begin tracking from the wrong location, they’d be underground a long time. Most of the time they leave the gnomes to Paul and Richard, especially lately. Between Paul being fairly small and Richard the second-smallest and, due to his vampirism, not needing to actually breathe, they’re best off doing it. A total of three farmers had reported gnomes on their ground. Schneider groans when Oliver reads the addresses.  
  
“What?” Oliver asks.  
  
“I happen to know that one of the farms that reported isn’t in line with the other two,” Schneider says, “Which means that it’s likely two different nests of gnomes. We should’ve just picked the damn pixies and left Paul and Richard to crawl through too narrow holes.”  
  
“I can make them big enough,” Oliver states, barely looking up as he says it. Schneider glances at him curiously.  
  
“You can?” Oliver nods, but gives no explanation as to why he’s able to. “Your file didn’t state what kind of supernatural being you are.”  
  
“No, it didn’t,” Oliver confirms. Schneider grins after a moment.  
  
“And neither are you going to tell, are you?” Oliver allows a small grin of his own as he meets Schneider’s eyes.  
  
“I’ll use my abilities when and where they help, however. After all, if you’re supposed to have my back, I’m sure the opposite is true too.” Oliver makes it sound a bit like a question and Schneider chuckles.  
  
“Oh yeah, chief sometimes gets a bit too- convinced that nobody can take of themselves. I was part of an- exchange program, if you can call it that? Shortly before I joined a bunch of people from the unit either got killed or transformed into supernatural beings themselves. They’d only hired trackers and investigators rather than ensuring someone could actually capture the criminals. A few guys from the army were recruited. I was one of them,” Schneider explains.  
  
“And nobody’s died since?”  
  
“I wouldn’t say nobody,” Schneider says, “But far fewer anyway. Richard wasn’t a vampire until a few months ago. Two agents from other teams died. One got turned into a werewolf. But I believe that’s all the incidents the last six years.”  
  
“Oh good. That’s nothing then,” Oliver says.  
  
“Hey, I don’t need to know what you are and I don’t particularly care but- considering I need to have your back- how hardy are you? Are you like an annoying pixie who are very easy to kill or are you like a Cerberus and you’ll just grow your body-parts back?”  
  
“Well- I won’t survive my entire body and head being cut into lots of little pieces, but I’ll survive just about everything else.”  
  
“Mh. Alright,” Schneider nods. Then, furrowing his brows, “Should’ve gotten you to go with one of the others though. I don’t do too much investigating.”  
  
“I think chief disliked the idea of throwing me in the deep, even though I assured him I could handle myself.” Schneider laughs.  
  
“Never tell chief you can handle yourself. He just considers it inexperience. He’s always saying that none of us can handle ourselves if it comes down to it,” Schneider explains his laugh when Oliver looks surprised.  
  
Schneider turns onto the driveway of the first farmer who’d reported the gnomes, parking the car before getting out. Oliver follows a step behind as they make their way to the porch, where Schneider knocks on the door. Franz is a rather grumpy looking fellow, though Schneider knows how much damage gnomes can do to the ground. If your income depends on that ground- well, it’d get him looking grumpy to.  
  
“Good morning, sir. We’ve come to take care of the gnome problem,” Schneider says. “I’m agent Schneider, this is agent Riedel with the SUI.”  
  
“Come on in,” Franz says, stepping back to allow them to enter. They’re lead into a spacious living room where Franz’s- wife, Schneider assumes- is sitting at the dinner table. She immediately smiles at them and goes to make them coffee. “Well, what do you need to know.”  
  
“The sooner we find the nest, the sooner we can ensure the problem is solved. Gnome paths are narrow, however, so we could work much faster if we begin close to the source. Where have you come across the most damage to the ground?” Schneider asks.  
  
“At the east corner. That’s where Daniel’s field meets mine, he’s got the most damage there too. Although Matias claims it’s a completely different direction.”  
  
“Yes, we suspect there are two individual nests. We will ensure both get removed. Could you lead us to it?” Schneider says. Franz nods, putting on his boots and leading them outside and through the field. Franz stands still next to one of the holes in the ground, looking at the Schneider and Oliver expectantly. Schneider puts on his best ‘customer-smile’. “Thank you, sir. That will be all for now. We’ll let you know when the gnomes are dealt with.”  
  
“What about my ground? The damage won’t be gone just because you remove the nest, will it?” Franz grumbles.  
  
“How about we talk about that once the gnomes don’t do further damage?” Schneider says, his fake smile widening. Franz grumbles something inaudible as he turns to walk back towards his house. Turning around Schneider glances at Oliver.  
  
“Ready?”  
  
“What actually happens once the gnomes are gone?”  
  
“We’ll send him the statement saying his ground was fucked up by gnomes and his insurance will pay him a nice sum with which he can recover his land.”  
  
“I could fix it,” Oliver says. Schneider arches his brow.  
  
“Well- it’s not our job, but I won’t stop you from doing so. I’m not carrying you back to the office if you knock yourself out trying to fix a problem that isn’t ours to fix,” Schneider states. Then, gesturing to the hole. “Guess it’s time for us to dive in.” Schneider pulls a face. He hasn’t dealt with gnomes in well over a year. He doesn’t miss it.  
  
Before he can jump into the hole, Oliver puts his hand on Schneider’s shoulder to stop him. Schneider furrows his brows, but allows Oliver to step forward regardless. He watches as Oliver raises his hand and closes his eyes before- to his surprise- the ground begins to shake and shift. Subtle enough that, when Schneider glances over his shoulder, he realizes that it’s just a small part, even though it feels like an earthquake where he’s standing.  
  
“Is it still stable or will the ground collapse on top of us?” Schneider asks when Oliver is done and turns to Schneider.  
  
“Fully stable,” Oliver merely replies.  
  
“Alright,” Schneider nods, jumping into the hole. Oliver had actually made it large enough that Schneider can stand upright, though Oliver himself still has to crouch just a little bit, given his length. They follow the path until they come to a crossing. Schneider crouches down to look for footprints. The path with the most of them likely leads to the nest. Taking the left path, they continue further, doing the same at every crossing until-  
  
“There’s the nest,” Schneider says, stopping Oliver and speaking quietly. He grabs into his backpack to retrieve the bottle of propane along with his lighter. “Do you know how to deal with gnomes?”  
  
“No, but judging by the set-up I can make an educated guess,” Oliver says, glancing at the bottle and the lighter before meeting Schneider’s eyes.  
  
“Well, alright Sherlock. How about I do it here and you can blow up the other nest when we find it?” Schneider grumbles, always a little annoyed with people being smart-asses.  
  
“Sounds like a plan,” Oliver agrees. Schneider opens the bottle, letting the propane stream out. “I do have a question. Won’t they scent the propane?”  
  
“No,” Schneider shakes his head, “Gnomes have no scent. And I don’t mean almost none, they have no sense of smell whatsoever. Something about the scent receptors in their brain being missing or whatever,” Schneider waves the precise reason off. “And fortunately for us, they’re mostly nocturnal, so they likely won’t be running around to bust us here.”  
  
Schneider waits a little longer than usual for the propane to fill the nest, considering Oliver making room for them on the paths also means that the actual nest itself was bigger too. After a considerate amount of time, however, Schneider takes the fire shield from his bag, sets it up to block the both of them, then ignites the lighter. All around them the fire bursts out at once. He hears the gnomes screaming, the scent of propane being replaced by burning ground and flesh alike. Schneider narrows his eyes to shield them from the heat, even as the rest of him begins sweating heavily. The fire races past them, the shield protecting them from the worst of it but some damage is done to their uniforms. Finally the fire dies down and Schneider puts the shield away, walking into the nest to ensure none of the gnomes remain alive. Satisfied with the results, he puts the tank, shield and lighter back into his bag.  
  
“Well- that’s one. Now for the other nest,” Schneider states. Then, realizing Oliver appears mostly unfazed by the flame- “Oh great. Another one who can’t sweat. You know, next time you and Richard get to do the jobs that require flames together.”  
  
“Aren’t vampires highly flammable?” Oliver asks as they make their way back through the path.  
  
“You’re right, maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll catch on fire,” Schneider grumbles, taking a left and finding an exit to the pathway maze gnomes always make. He kicks some feet-indentations into the side of the path so he can climb out, then reaches back and takes Oliver’s hand to help him exit as well.  
  
“You don’t seem to like each other very much,” Oliver observes. Schneider sighs and rubs at his neck, glad to be in the cool air.  
  
“Oh, we like each other. He’s just been grumpy since he was transformed. I’m not sure what he hates more- the fact he was dumb enough to actually get killed on the job or the fact that someone decided he’d like to be alive, even as a vampire. He’ll be back to his usual self soon. He doesn’t like to admit it, but he’s already getting very used to being a vampire.”  
  
“It can be difficult to get used to being changed,” Oliver nods, sounding as if he has personal experience with it. Schneider doesn’t respond to it, instead watches as Oliver closes the paths before they make their way back to the house, to inform Franz and his neighbour before repeating the process at the other side of the street with the other nest.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter of build-up before we get started on the actual case this story revolves around.
> 
> Also- my apologies about the day's delay. My plannning is to upload these on Friday, however yesterday was one big chaos. My dad ended up in the hospital needing surgery so I didn't get a chance to upload this. He's recovering now however, so I thought I'd use the time before visitation hours begin to upload this. Hope you enjoy!

It’s been a few months since Oliver joined the SIU. Schneider had remained Oliver’s go-to partner. Mostly because the two of them worked well together on the jobs that were brainless pests to get rid of. Partly because Oliver seemed more at ease with Schneider. He’s rather quiet and laidback regardless, but Till had told Schneider that that quietness is nothing compared to when Schneider isn’t present in the office. 

“Morning,” Oliver greets him, stepping through the door. Then- “I didn’t think I was late enough for everyone to have left already,” he adds, glancing at the clock above the door. It’s three minutes past 9, so indeed, Oliver isn’t too incredibly later. However-

“They won’t be in this week. Chief sent them to Hamburg to help with a string of crimes there.”

“What about us?” 

“Chief hasn’t brought us any jobs yet,” Schneider states, throwing his feet up on the desk. “I’ll ask him about it in half an hour or so. We can take the day off otherwise.” 

“Sounds good. I’m grabbing some coffee while we wait. You want some too?” Schneider gives him a thumbs up in response, then takes his phone from his pocket. When he glances back up at hearing Oliver return with the coffee, Oliver is-

“Blue? What happened?” 

“I can imagine it was Paul trying to see how I react to almoride,” Oliver sighs, trying to brush the stuff off of him. Of course, however, since it’s known for being very sticky (in addition to revealing warlocks), it doesn’t come off. Schneider laughs. 

“I didn’t realize he was still trying to figure out what you were.”

“I’m fairly sure you’re the only one who doesn’t try to. Paul is just the most obvious,” Oliver responds, sitting down with a sigh. 

“I’ll check with the chief for assignments while you have a shower, yeah?” Schneider offers up.

“Thanks.” Schneider brushes it off easily. They drink their coffee in a comfortable silence before Oliver gets up to shower and Schneider indeed goes to check for their assignments for the day. He knocks on the chief’s office’s door, pushing it open to reveal the man looking rather surprised.

“Right. Not your whole team was in Hamburg this week,” he mumbles while he rubs his hand across his face. He remains silent for a moment before- “Go home for the day. I’ll have an assignment for you tomorrow.” 

“Yes, sir,” Schneider says.

“Show up at eight instead of nine,” chief calls before Schneider can close the door behind himself. 

“Yes, sir,” he agrees. He walks to the dressing room. “We’re off for the day,” Schneider calls out to Oliver from the general area.

“Good,” Oliver says. Before Schneider can turn around to leave for the day, Oliver continues; “Hey, want to come watch a movie over at my place?” Schneider remains in place for a moment. Considering he’d have to work all day today, he doesn’t have any plans. He’s already done the groceries and his house is clean enough that he wouldn’t do any chores today either way.

“Sure,” Schneider calls out, taking a seat while he waits for Oliver to finish showering. It doesn’t take long before the shower is turned off and not long after that until Oliver steps out of the shower area. He’s got a towel loosely wrapped around his waist. The markings on his body are shifting more obviously than they normally do. Schneider doesn’t claim to be an expert, but he knows Oliver well enough by now to know that the shiftier his markings, the more nervous the man.

“I can wait outside if you’re nervous about me seeing you fresh out of the shower,” Schneider jokes. Oliver looks a little surprised, and Schneider grins. “Your markings are quite shifty at the moment.” 

“Oh,” Oliver says, glancing down at himself. “Actually- it’s got nothing to do with this.” He appears to hesitate for a moment. “There’s an issue- at the moment- with my- family.” 

“Oh. Shouldn’t you go help them? I can occupy myself for the day. Kind of figured I’d have to anyway,” Schneider offers. “Or if it’s something I could help with, even, I will.” 

“That’s kind of you,” Oliver says, doing a nice drawling impression of Richard. He leans against the wall after reaching for his joggers. “It’ll have to resolve itself. Nothing either of us can do about it. It’s just- well, siblings, you know? Fights can get out of hand. Especially when you’re Ol- when you’re not human,” Oliver catches himself before he says what he actually is. Then- grimacing- “Please don’t tell the others what my species starts with?”

“I didn’t even hear,” Schneider lies. Oliver rolls his eyes, but smiles appreciatively anyway. 

“Why aren’t you more curious what I am? I mean- not that I mind it, I rather like at least one person not bothering me. It’s just- people always wonder. And considering you’ve seen me use my abilities more than anyone else, I’d say you’d be more curious rather than less,” Oliver says, stepping into his briefs before letting the towel fall away and getting dressed all the way. 

“Clearly you’re not comfortable with people knowing what you are. You’re a good friend, why should I want to make you feel uncomfortable? I don’t see how my curiosity would beat your comfort.” Oliver’s gaze meets Schneider’s. 

“Thanks,” he murmurs. Schneider gives him a thumbs up, which makes Oliver laugh. “One day I might just tell you what I am. Then we can tease the others together about knowing what I am.”

“Oh, they’d go crazy,” Schneider laughs. “But I must warn you- Richard and Till both could torture it out of me. I may be adapted to fight beings stronger than myself, I’m fairly sure they’d surprise-attack me to avoid giving me the chance to.” Oliver laughs. 

“I’ll come to your rescue, no worries.” 

“Oh wow, my very own superman. Well- now I don’t like that I know what your species begins with. I was going to joke you’re a Kryptonian.” Oliver grins. Then- “Unless, of course, you are a Kryptonian and you were just going to say ol’ Kryptonian.”

“Better get the Kryptonite ready,” he responds, finally pulling on his shoes. “Also, if I’m your very own superman, would that make you my Lois Lane?” 

“Well- Lois Lane was a love-interest, wasn’t she? You tell me, am I your Lois Lane?” Schneider jokes. 

“Maybe,” Oliver easily returns. Schneider snorts a laugh.

“Welp- I’d better get used to sucking glow-in-the-dark dick then,” Schneider dramatically sighs. 

“Believe it or not, but my markings actually don’t glow in the dark, despite how bright they are.” 

“Oh. Just strange-looking dick, then?” Oliver laughs. 

“Hey, my dick looks really good. Besides- according to Till you have a taste for dick anyway, so I’m not sure how much you actually care what it looks like.” Schneider manages a serious and indignant face for all of two seconds before he bursts out laughing. “Come on, let’s head over to mine. Want to follow behind my car or should I drop you off at yours tonight?” 

“I’ll follow behind,” Schneider says, getting up and following Oliver down the halls to the parking garage. 

They’re sitting in Oliver’s living room some twenty minutes later, the coffee machine doing its work in the kitchen. They’d already selected a movie to watch, but they’re waiting for the coffee to be ready to start it. 

“Why didn’t we have to go to Hamburg anyway?” Oliver asks. Schneider snorts. 

“I don’t think they value our detective skills all that highly. Bastards,” Schneider jokes the last part. While it’s true that both of them did do the ‘easier’ jobs, both of them had definite skill in detective-work too. Schneider due to being on the job seven years now and Oliver from being trained at the police-academy. The division was mostly for the sake of Oliver and Schneider handling the simple plague and nests more easily, between Schneider’s army training and Oliver’s abilities. Oliver still looks a little puzzled and Schneider sighs, “The guys don’t believe it, but the chief actually doesn’t value our detective skills. I was hired a brainless monkey from the military. I’m not sure why he doesn’t value your skills- I mean- given that I assume you didn’t tell him what you could do from not being human, I imagine he didn’t hire you for brawn.” 

“Are you calling me weak, Schneider?” Oliver asks, pulling an indignant face. Schneider smirks. 

“I didn’t call you weak. But I’m damn sure that, if I find your kryptonite, I can kick your ass.”

“Not without it? And here I thought you were used to fighting species much stronger than you.” 

“Oh, I am,” Schneider says, arching his brow, “I’ve also spent enough time by your side to know you have a much too wide range of abilities for me to avoid them all. Getting to you would be difficult. And since you claim to be practically immortal- well, it’ll still be difficult even if I do manage.” 

“Warlocks have a wider range of abilities. I’ve seen you take them down. Actually, singlehandedly once, considering you very bossily told me to ‘keep the civilians safe!’” 

“Are you looking for me to actually attack you, Oli?” Schneider taunts. Oliver smirks. 

“Actually, you’re right. I would win. And I have no intention of hurting you.” Schneider huffs and sits back, crossing his arms. As soon as Oliver gets up to get the coffee that is done, he lunges forward and goes to grabs around Oliver’s neck, his legs swinging to aid him by trying to lock around Oliver’s waist. Before Schneider can touch Oliver, however, something flings him back into the couch. “Oh come on. That was predictable. Surely you can do better.”

“Sometimes, Oli, I really hate you,” Schneider snorts. “I’ll tell Paul what your species starts with.” 

“I’m quaking in my boots,” Oliver tosses over his shoulder, carrying the two large mugs of coffee back with him. Schneider makes a face and mockingly repeats what Oliver had said, only for Oliver to laugh and ruffle Schneider’s hair. 

“When were the others scheduled to return?” Oliver asks, four days later when there’s still no sign of life behind the desks of the other four. 

“When the case is solved. I think it’s a rather big gang they’re trying to take down, so it might be a while,” Schneider responds. He’d heard snippets of what the other guys had been up to, and last he heard they though they were going after four high-ranking individuals. “In the meantime- what do you want first, nest of pixies or- huh, this one must’ve been given to us by accident,” Schneider says, glancing at the file he hadn’t yet opened (he’d been mere moments earlier than Oliver). “An unidentified genie causing trouble.” 

“Let’s just clear the pixies quickly and get to it then,” Oliver says. Schneider glances at him in surprise and Oliver gives a sheepish smile.

“Oh, trust me- with the amount of damage I create annually, doing little things like making a home safe is good for me. Besides- it’s little effort on our part.” Schneider arches a brow.

“Amount of damage you create? I mean- I know that our job sometimes creates some additional damage, but I think you work more cleanly than most of us. Certainly than Paul and Till. Perhaps even Flake, since he simply doesn’t give a fuck.” 

“Not with the job,” Oliver says, shaking his head. He doesn’t elaborate however. “Besides- what are you complaining about? We both know how irritable you get if you don’t get to kill some little buggers for a while.” Schneider huffs.

“You sound too much like the chief sometimes. I tracked down the bogeyman last month much faster than you did.” 

“I know you can investigate, don’t worry. But you have to admit you’re not exactly the best at speaking with the witnesses,” Oliver points out. Which- alright, fair enough. Schneider tends to be a bit too impatient for dealing with witnesses. 

“If you think I’m bad with that, you should see me deal with territory wars,” Schneider grins. “Alright- you choose to get rid of some pixies, we’ll get rid of some pixies. You owe me though.” Oliver smirks but doesn’t disagree, following Schneider out the door and into the garage. 

The pixies are dealt with swiftly and they’ve just arrived at an uncharacteristically large house for the investigation into the genie. Schneider arches his brow, glancing down the street in both directions.

“I know it’s dumb to wish from a genie in the first place, but who in the world wishes for a large house instead of money to buy a large house with?” Schneider points out. 

“Genie’s wishes aren’t limited to just one,” Oliver counters. Schneider halts in his track, throwing his head back.

“Oh god no. Do we really have to try and find out the genie’s identity and location from some numb nut who was dumb enough to make more than one wish?” Oliver chuckles at Schneider’s groan, putting his hands on Schneider’s shoulders.

“Well- what do you prefer. A numb nut who just cared about the size of his house and nothing else, or a numb nut who made more than one wish?” 

“Oh good. So retarded either way. The joy.” 

“Well- we’d better get to interrogate him outside of the house. Knowing genies, chances it’ll collapse within a week are good,” Oliver points out. That, at least, is something Schneider can get on board with. They walk up to the door, with their best ‘dealing-with-customers-even-if-they’re-retarded’ faces on, explaining that it would be best to do the interview outside and for any occupants of the house to temporary stay elsewhere. 

Roy, the man who’d actually done the wishing, doesn’t seem convinced of the danger his own house now poses. Schneider knows better than to argue, making a mental note to have some safety regulations check on it. Unlike the SIU, they have jurisdiction to mandate someone out of their homes temporarily. He at least agrees to talk to Oliver and Schneider in his backyard. 

“Do you remember what name the genie gave you?” Schneider asks, once settled there. He keeps a mindful eye on the house, sitting too close to it for his liking. 

“No, but I could give a description to someone who can make a drawing.” 

“Yes, we will refer you to our artist once we have the information we want. Genies rarely ever assume the same visage twice, however. A name and a location are much more useful. Do you remember either?” Schneider asks. 

“Uh- no, I don’t think he mentioned his name.”

“Right. And the location?” Schneider asks.

“Listen- I know you’re not supposed to ask for wishes but- is it really so bad to get what you want?” Roy asks. Schneider determines it must have been one of his neighbours who called the report in, after seeing the suddenly massive house. Certainly doesn’t seem to have been this guy. Schneider barely represses the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“Genies don’t grant wishes without a price. If you wish for a large house, they will give you a large house. However, it will either be badly built and fall apart, or the wires might be bad and it’ll burn up. Who knows, it might even have become haunted the moment your wish was granted. Wishes are not safe.”

“Right. Governments pawns would say that,” Roy huffs. “Fine, though. I already got my wishes.”

“Plural?” Schneider drawls. It confirms their suspicions, of course, but Schneider had rather hoped not even this dude was that stupid. “I do hope you’ve arranged everything for your wake.” Schneider catches Oliver giving him a look from the corner of his eye, but he ignores it. “The location?” 

“The corner between Ludwigstrasse and Merendam,” Roy states, smirking widely as he says it. “Just so you know, though. All of us who struggle to get by hate the people who get rid of our chances to make the best of our lives.” Schneider ignores the statement, while Oliver politely wraps the conversation up and also gives the information for Roy to contact the composition artist. 

“Are people really dumb enough to believe that we’re trying to get rid of genies just so they can’t make themselves happy?” Schneider asks. Then- “Never mind. Don’t answer that. I’d like to have a flicker of hope for humanity to remain within me.” Oliver laughs at the dramatic statement, while they get in the car. 

Genies, unfortunately, appear to have a way of sensing who to approach. Anyone working for the SIU knew better than to want anything from them- well, most of the times. Schneider hadn’t been working for the unit yet, but apparently one agent fell for it, left the man divorced mere weeks later- and therefor tracking genies isn’t easy. 

It’s mostly a matter of staking out the area entirely without being noticed and hoping they get a visual on someone who appears to be approaching people without apparent cause. Schneider considers Oliver for a moment. 

“You need to change.”

“What? And here I thought you liked me,” Oliver protests. Schneider rolls his eyes.

“Your clothes, I mean. We need to hide your markings. We’ll be too easily caught if we stake-out with you lighting up like Avatar.” 

“My markings are nothing like those,” Oliver huffs. “Besides, they’re all over the back of my head. Unless you want me to wear a wig.” 

“It’s fall and there’s a definite chill in the air. Nobody will be surprised to see someone wearing a beanie. Or gloves,” Schneider adds, glancing at Oliver’s hands. “And a high-collared sweater.   
Jesus- whatever you are can’t be very achingly criminal. We’d track you easily, anyone notices and it’s difficult to cover up.” 

“Well- I suppose it helps there’s only a dozen of us,” Oliver responds. “Fine. Drive by my house. I can probably find some clothes to hide the markings with.” Schneider fires up the car, driving up to Oliver’s as instructed. He gets out of the car and follows Oliver inside. Oliver glances at him expectantly at the top of his stairs, and Schneider furrows his brows. 

“What- do you need help to get dressed?” Schneider taunts. Oliver rolls his eyes.

“Well, it’d help to have someone check if all my marks are actually hidden.” Schneider supposes that the other man has a point there. He follows Oliver into his bedroom, where Oliver turns to his closet to rummage through while Schneider glances at his bed.

“Guess you have a lot of orgies, huh?” Schneider jokes, seeing the size of it. Despite the bedroom being big, the bed still takes up the majority of room. It must be a good- seven meters long, as well as about five meters wide. 

“Oh, of course. Wouldn’t sit on it, if I were you. All kinds of supernatural STD’s sticking to those sheets,” Oliver taunts back, glancing in amusement as Schneider had already sat down. Schneider makes a mock-disgusted face. “Your choice. If you have vampire-chlamydia tomorrow, don’t come to me.”

“I’ll go to Richard instead,” Schneider jokes. “He could use some. He’s been a little arrogant now that he doesn’t stay hurt for longer than a few seconds anymore.” Oliver snorts a laugh even as he shuffles through his closet. He searches the hanging rack first, checking if any sweaters have a high collar. Then he moves to the individual shelves.

“Doesn’t look like I have a high-collared sweater. I do have a scarf, though. It’s not ideal, since it can slip, but it’s the best I can do,” Oliver says, taking a scarf, a pair of gloves and a beanie from the closet. 

“I’ll help keep an eye that the scarf remains in place,” Schneider says. “Remind me- messerdam is a shopping street, right? We could pretend to be a shopping together.”

“Right- two men shopping, nothing suspicious about that,” Oliver counters. 

“As if men don’t need to go shopping.”

“Well- I’ll assume we need to stake out for longer than an hour.” Schneider cocks his head. 

“I suppose you’re right. We could pretend to be gay men shopping together.” 

“That’s much more convincing. Especially with the way you look,” Oliver says. Schneider flips him the finger.

“Hey, only one of us actually is gay.” 

“Yeah, and the other one absolutely can’t appreciate male beauty at all, can he, mister bisexual? Besides- you’re the one who has gone out in drag before.” Schneider groans. 

“I’m killing Paul if he tells anyone else.” Oliver laughs loudly. “Come on. We’d better get to the damned corner. Don’t want our genie to change location before we can track him down.” 

Schneider is smiling broadly when they get to Messerdam, near the corner that was specified. Oliver is smiling more subtly, but he always does. Schneider is holding Oliver’s gloved hand, eagerly pointing at several things, talking about what he sees through the window while in reality gesturing to the handful of people who don’t look like they’re there to shop. 

“You want to have everything,” Oliver mock-complains, tugging on Schneider’s hand to make him turn around. Schneider easily catches on and raises on his toe to glance over Schneider’s shoulders. There is indeed a woman there that Schneider had missed, leaning against a lamppost while observing the crowd passing her by. “You’re so adorable.” 

“I’m not adorable. I’m sexy as all hell,” Schneider complains with a grin. “Come on. I really like the look of that sweater,” he says, gesturing to one of the shops. He does take the sweater with him into the fitting room, though he doesn’t actually fit it. 

“See how many of them are left when we get outside?” Oliver guesses. Schneider nods, leaning against the wall of the fitting room. “Got one you think we should pay extra attention to?” 

“Hard to say yet,” Schneider comments. “You?” 

“I think that woman was definitely scanning the crowd. But I believe genies generally take on a male façade, right?” 

“Yeah,” Schneider confirms. “Promising to make men’s dreams come through sounds a bit like a whore rather than a genie when it’s coming from a woman, considering which of the two is far more common. Some genies might try a female façade because they know they get less suspicion because of that. Can’t write her off just for that.” 

“Right,” Oliver nods. “Want me to help you out of that sweater, honey?” Schneider gives him a grin, holding up his arms demonstratively. Oliver can’t help a chuckle of his own. 

It takes six more shops before only two suspects remain. The woman who Oliver had indicated earlier and a man on the opposite side of the street. 

“You take the woman I take the man?” Schneider asks. Oliver nods his agreement. “Bring them into the alley there. It’s a dead-end. We don’t want them to be able to escape.” Schneider walks up to the man, who glances up at Schneider curiously when he approaches. Schneider allows a smile. “I hear you’re able to make wishes come true.” The figure snorts.

“Said who?” 

“Does it matter?” Schneider asks. “If my information is correct, we could help each other. Follow me,” Schneider walks into the alley without looking back. He knows that, if this man is genuinely a genie, he will follow regardless. 

Oliver is already there, the woman slightly further into the alley. Schneider shifts so the possible genie passes Oliver first, then stands next to Oliver to actively block their way out. The woman seems to catch on, narrowing her eyes at being trapped in the alley, while the man simply arches his eyebrow.

“Hold our your hands. Without gloves,” Schneider commands, showing his badge. He retrieves the herbal mixture they use to unveil genies from his backpack. Schneider watches as Oliver ‘helps’ them stick their hands out when they don’t seem to want to, then keeps them there while Schneider tips the mixture onto their hands. Seeing both hands’ flesh bubble up irritably at being in contact with the mixture, Schneider arches an eyebrow.

“Two genies working together, huh? That’s- peculiar,” Schneider lifts both of their jacket-sleeves revealing that both of them had somehow managed to remove the bracelets that keeps genies from being able to use their ability to ‘grant wishes’. “Do you happen to have a bracelet on hand? I only brought the one,” Schneider asks Oliver. Oliver looks into his own backpack, holding up a bracelet and handing it to Schneider to attach to the genie while he searches through Schneider’s pack for the second one. 

Schneider activates the bracelet by punching in the code for genies (the same bracelets were used for most magic-users, but the code had to be specific to the species or they didn’t work) before securing it around the woman’s wrist first. Oliver is already busy with the man by the time the woman is secured. They then take the two to the regular police’s office in the back of their car, where they will be prosecuted for any damage done. Likely it will just be the fine for the one person they did get caught for. Genies typically get away with the majority of their crimes, due to the fact it’s practically impossible to investigate due to their differing physical appearance every time and the fact that people rarely admit to having wished for anything. 

“Want to come have a beer at mine to begin the weekend?” Oliver asks once they’re back in the car by themselves.

“It’s Wednesday,” Schneider protests. 

“Yes, and chief literally told us we wouldn’t get any cases for the rest of the week. No use coming in then,” Oliver points out. Schneider cocks his head. 

“That’s true. Your house is terribly located for public transport though. Unless you want me to drink and drive,” Schneider points out.

“You can crash at mine too. I’ve got a spare room.” Schneider can’t help but be a little surprised at the offer. Oliver had crashed at his once or twice before, when they indeed had had a party, due to not being able to get home afterwards. Oliver typically preferred spending time together anywhere besides his own home. Schneider believes the six of them had only been there   
twice before, throughout the half year that Oliver worked for the unit. For Schneider to be invited twice in three days, and to crash to boot? 

“Sure,” Schneider agrees regardless. Schneider nods, dropping Schneider off at his own home to collect his things before telling him he’ll see him in a bit.


	3. Chapter 3

Schneider steps through the front door, then coughs in both surprise and from actual necessity when a blast of hot air meets him. Recovering and stepping through the hallway into the living room, Schneider glances at Oliver curiously.

“What in the actual fuck, Oli? Why’s it hotter than a volcano in here?” Oliver actually laughs quite loudly at Schneider’s question, though what is so funny is beyond Schneider.

“One of my siblings came by. He has that effect. Close your eyes and hold on, I’ll fix it,” Oliver says, wrapping his arms around Schneider. Schneider does as instructed, closing his eyes and burrowing his face into Oliver’s chest. He hears and feels water, before Oliver steps back and makes a gesture with his hand that dries Schneider up at once. “Better?” 

“Better,” Schneider confirms. “Why didn’t you cool it for yourself?” 

“I barely register temperature. I thought you’d noticed by now,” Oliver seems a little amused. 

“Oh, trust me, I noticed. This wasn’t just a matter of it being hot, though. It literally made me cough,” Schneider points out. “I thought even you would’ve noticed that.” 

“Mh. Well, let’s just say I can easily handle the inside of a volcano,” Oliver returns with a lightly amused expression. 

“Till can handle great heat. He’s cold most of the time as a result,” Schneider states.

“Yes, well- that would be inconvenient, since I also have to be able to stand temperatures well below freezing.” Schneider shivers automatically at Oliver’s statement.

“Yeah- well- considering you have the ability to at least somewhat manipulate temperature- please leave it warm enough so us mere mortal humans don’t freeze or burn to death,” Schneider pleads. 

“I’ll consider your request,” Oliver genuinely looks as if he’s considering it. Schneider flips him off and Oliver’s grins happily. Oliver then walks into the kitchen to grab them both a beer. Schneider sinks himself onto the couch, reaching for the bottle once it’s handed to him and taking a large swig before he notices-

“Did your sibling have bad news?” Schneider asks, making Oliver glance down at himself, where his markings are shifting quickly and uneasily. He’s back in a singlet, which he seems to favour despite not feeling the temperature much. 

“Nothing worse than usual,” Oliver responds. “We don’t- exactly have a tight bond. We’re not even- genuine family.” Schneider remains silent for a moment, considering Oliver.

“I know that you don’t exactly want anyone to realize what you are but- you can talk to me, if you’re having trouble with something. I don’t care if I don’t have all the information. Well- unless you actually want advise. Can’t give that without the facts. It often   
helps to just have someone who can listen,” Schneider offers up. Oliver sighs deeply, glancing down at his beer bottle before taking a large enough swig he nearly downs it at once. 

“I wouldn’t actually care if you knew what I am,” Oliver admits quietly. “I’m just- I wasn’t born the way I am. I’ve heard you guys- or, Richard and Paul mostly, discussing why I started this path this late. It’s because I was- I was so different. All I wanted to do was make music. And then- one day I wake up and- I’m transformed. Suddenly I’m responsible for so much. And quite a lot of it bad. I decided to join the police, to make up for some what the bad things I have to do.”

“You’re not comfortable yet, with what you are,” Schneider concludes. Oliver gives Schneider a half-embarrassed smile. “Don’t be ashamed of that. It’s perfectly natural to have to go through a process before you can accept it.” 

“I know. I’m just not sure I’ll ever be able to accept what I am. I never wanted it. I never expected it. Hell, I didn’t even realize- I didn’t even realize it was real.”

“Supernaturals have been known for several decades now. Surely before you were born, considering you’re younger than I am,” Schneider points out.

“Oh, I knew supernaturals existed. Just not this particular kind of supernatural. You’ve been working with the SIU long enough now that you’ve dealt with practically every kind, right? Have you ever seen someone like me? Ever even heard of someone like me?” 

“Police academy is three years, yeah? So you’ve been what you are four years now?” Schneider asks. Oliver nods. “Listen- I- I don’t know how to help you with this. I’ve never been through a transformation nor was I trained for this kind of thing. There are people who are specialized in helping supernaturals work through their change. We sent Richard there as well. He groaned and complained the whole way through, but I know he’s grateful and it helped him a lot.”

“I looked into that. They don’t help you unless you reveal what you are,” Oliver states miserably. Schneider chews the inside of his cheek, regarding Oliver cautiously for a moment. 

“You told me you wouldn’t mind if I knew what you are. Why would you mind if they knew?” 

“I wouldn’t mind you knowing because of your personality and your background,” Oliver quietly states, looking anywhere but at Schneider. “You’re a no-bullshit kind of guy. You realize there’s a need for certain bad things in order to accomplish good things. I’m not sure if you were always that way or if it’s due to your time in the military but- I believe you could see past the bad things I have to do. I don’t think others could.” 

“The world requires balance. An equal amount of bad to an equal amount of good. People who believe differently are naïve.”

“Do you think the world would- somehow blow up if all bad were removed?”

“Oh, no, it wouldn’t blow up,” Schneider says, shaking his head. “No bad things just means- means people have no motivation. Without motivation nothing gets done. And when nothing gets done- people get lazy and dumb. And eventually- yes, the world would not be healthy anymore. When people get lazy and dumb, no progress will be made. We can’t stay on the path we are now. Deforestation, climate change, running out of fossil substances- It requires progress. Progress requires bad things.” 

“See- you understand why certain things need to be done,” Oliver concludes. Schneider remains silent again, watching Oliver’s markings intently. 

“I won’t badger you about telling me what you are. If you ever want to, though, you can talk to me. And I can try and find out if there are any therapists that- well, see the world the same way we do.” Oliver offers up a genuine smile at Schneider’s offer.

“Thanks, Schneider.” 

“Yeah, no trouble. Now come on, either you tell me what’s bothering you, or we should begin drinking and turn on the TV,” Schneider calls out. Oliver chuckles, reaching for the remote and opting for the second option. 

“I am so looking forward to the others returning. I’ll even stand all the jokes about me sucking dick for some half-decent cases,” Schneider remarks the following Thursday when chief has once again assigned them nothing but cases where they clear pests. 

“We could pester him into giving us a less manual cases,” Oliver says, looking rather proud of his own pun. Schneider can’t quite contain his chuckle, even if he rolls his eyes at the other man’s joke. 

“I think he’s already handed them out for the week, but at least he might give us some decent ones next Monday, then,” Schneider says. 

“You think the others still won’t be back?” 

“You do realize you’re in the group-chat too, right?” Schneider points out. Oliver makes a face, and Schneider grins, knowing that he generally has to tell Oliver to read something in it. “Yeah, seems like it’s quite the intricate network they’re trying to roll up over there.” 

“How many people are working on it? Not just the four of them, surely?” 

“Not as far as I know,” Schneider confirms. “Though I’m not sure about the entirety of the team. I recall Flake complaining about how six was more than enough and that they had no need for a 14-man team, but then Paul said he shouldn’t exaggerate, so it might not be 14 people.” Oliver smirks at the thought of Flake working in a big team. Before he can comment on it, however, chief walks through the door, his arms crossed and his face rather stormy. 

“Did I not already give you your cases, gentlemen?” he thunders. Schneider sits up a little straighter.

“Yes, sir. We were finishing our coffee before heading out.”

“Don’t,” comes the thundering reply, making Schneider want to roll his eyes but refrain in favour of not angering their boss. “It’s actually convenient the two of you are lazy. I just received a call from your team. They appear convinced that the reason the Hamburg division of the SUI has not been able to roll up the network yet because of a mole within the team. I want the two of you to make your way there. You’re to explain to your team that you are there in an attempt to both gather more information about the network itself and trying to identify the mole. In order to do so, I’ll need the both of you to infiltrate there.” 

“Yes sir,” Schneider responds, rather happy to finally get a serious case again. 

“Good. Pack your bags. I want you to meet up with your team before nightfall so you can begin infiltrating the network this time tomorrow,” chief says, walking out of the office. Unlike Schneider, Oliver doesn’t get up immediately, instead glancing down the hallway to check when chief is out of hearing range.

“Are you sure we can go undercover? Between my markings and your eye, we’re quite recognizable,” Oliver points out. Schneider’s right eye has a severely damaged iris and pupil as a result of a splinter from shrapnel during his time in the military. 

“Oh, it actually generally tends to work in our favour for undercover jobs. I’ve been sent into a few black-market deals. Apparently it makes me look rather menacing,” Schneider grins and Oliver arches his brow.

“Aren’t you blind in that eye?” Schneider makes a face at him.

“Can’t a man see any advantages when he’s already screwed anyway?” 

“Apparently only half of them.” Schneider actually snorts at Oliver’s joke. 

“Actually, it didn’t take half my sight. Your eyes cover much of the same thing. When you loose one eye, you only loose about 20% of your vision. And since we always make sure you’re on my right side, you can cover that percentage.” 

“Right,” Oliver says, clearly amused by Schneider’s lack of worries about his eye. 

“I lost my eye when I was 17. It was just my second year in the military. I’ve learnt to live with it since. Besides, unlike you, I wasn’t too damn stubborn to seek out therapy. Not to mention- I’ve seen people come off the battle-field with lots worse than losing sight in one eye,” Schneider assures Oliver.

“Fine. Let’s just go home and pack. It’s quite a drive to Hamburg,” Oliver points out. “Uh- one of our cars has to stay here while we’re gone.”

“Actually, we can’t take a SUI vehicle,” Schneider says, a smug grin on his face at having realized it before Oliver. “We’re trying to infiltrate a network that has enough brain to have a mole inside the SUI. There’s no way they’re not going to recognize it.”

“Oh, fair point. So, your car or mine?” 

“Mine,” Schneider grins, “I’m not a fifty-year old lady.” Oliver rolls his eyes.

“Hey, unlike you I haven’t had a very well-paying job for the past eight years. I was a struggling musician before I joined the police-academy,” Oliver defends his car. Schneider merely grins as he pats Oliver’s shoulder. 

“I’ll come pick you up in an hour.” Oliver nods his agreement to Schneider’s statement before they both leave the bureau. 

“I’d say it’s good to see you but- well, you’re still as ugly as I remember,” Richard states as Oliver and Schneider walk into the apartment set up for them. Paul, Richard, Till and Flake had already been inside, spread over the living room. 

“You don’t look that brilliant yourself. I didn’t even know vampires could get bags under their eyes,” Schneider shoots back, putting his suitcase in the hallway before sitting down next to Paul.

“The Hamburg division turns out to be incredibly dumb,” Flake complains. “Not to mention unreliable. You’ll have to be careful while undercover. We suspect there is not one, but two moles.” 

“You’re kidding?” Schneider asks, turning to glance at each of them in turn. The exhaustion on their faces is, honestly, answer enough as to whether they were actually kidding. And, admittedly, some exasperation and frustration is clearly written on their faces as well. Not even Paul manages a smile. “Alright, you’re not kidding. So our objectives are to help you uncover more information as well as try to identify all moles.”

“Yes,” Till confirms. “I’ve taken the liberty of checking out a file that you and Oliver can go over once we’ve left. I think your best chances for getting an in might be The Nose. He scopes out near the industrial complex, approaching shady types to become runners for the operation. However- you’re no good to them as runners. Just in case it came to this, we’ve been dropping hints that the two of you are able to get your hands on illegal goods. We’ve come up with your nicks too, though we haven’t yet determined as to what goods you can get your hands on, since we weren’t able to communicate with the team working here where we might obtain some of the goods they’d be interested in.”

“I’ll assume a network that large has at least some involvement with drugs, right?” Oliver asks. Till and Flake both nod. “I’ve got access to a substance that will very much appeal to them. We’d just have to find a way to make it presentable.” 

“Alright,” Till draws the word out, clearly not entirely satisfied with the explanation but choosing to accept it just for now. “Schneider, you’re Popeye, same information otherwise as your last undercover job. Oliver, your nick is Nesbit. Your information is in the file along with the information on the network. Take tomorrow to find a way to use Oliver’s substance in a narcotics form. Once that’s done, I want Schneider to distribute the narcotics in the industrial complex. I’ll arrange for some buyers the division here doesn’t know about. Keep us informed, but under no circumstances approach any of us before we’ve successfully identified all the moles. Is everyone in agreement with the plan?” Till glances around the room to see if he has everyone’s agreement on the plan. Half of them merely agree by staying silent while the others nod their agreement. 

“So, now can we finally go home and sleep?” Richard drawls, arching a brow.

“Yes. Good luck,” Till tells the two of them before he leaves the apartment. Once everyone is outside, Schneider glances to Oliver.

“Let’s get some shut-eye if we’re to invent some kind of narcotic tomorrow,” Schneider announces, walking up the stairs with his suitcase. There are two bedrooms of roughly the same size and Schneider easily walks into one of them, depositing his suitcase at the trunk of the bed and unloading the essentials he’d need right now and tomorrow morning. The rest he leaves in just for now. “What time do you want to start tomorrow? Can’t imagine we can begin before you get the base-substance.” 

“Uh, I have it with me. We just need to extract it. Let’s just start at nine, as usual?” 

“Sure,” Schneider nods, curious as to what kind of substance Oliver had brought that could be used to make narcotics. Deciding not to delve into that right now, he grabs his toothbrush to prepare himself for the night. 

Schneider wanders into the kitchen in his joggers the following morning, the scent of coffee greeting him already. Oliver too is wearing his joggers, leaning against the counter and tapping his foot impatiently while waiting for the coffee to be ready. Schneider walks past him to check if there’s anything for breakfast in the fridge.

“Want a sandwich with- ham, cheese or- chocolate paste?” Schneider asks when he glances in the cupboard after checking the fridge. 

“Ham,” Oliver grumbles. Schneider nods, making himself a sandwich with cheese and giving Oliver one with ham. By the time both plates are ready, the coffee has finished brewing too and Oliver happily stands up to pour it into their cups, immediately putting his own to his mouth. Schneider is about to warn him it’s likely still boiling before remembering-

“Right. You’re temperature resistant,” he notes, taking his own coffee with him to the table where he blows on it to cool it down a little. Oliver follows behind after pouring a second cup. They eat their breakfast and drink their coffee in silence before each going about their morning routine. 

Finally, half an hour later, Schneider walks back into the living room where Oliver is drinking another cup of coffee. Schneider goes to the counter to get himself another cup as well before he slinks down into the comfortable chair opposite to the couch Oliver is sitting on. Schneider props his feet up on the table. 

“Where are we going to get the substance and how do we extract it? What kind of substance is it? That way I can already think about how to make narcotics out of it. How difficult would it be for smugglers to get their hand on? We don’t want to make some highly addictive narcotic that dealers could smuggle if they can easily replicate it,” Schneider begins to bombard Oliver with questions. 

“Oh, I can assure you they won’t be able to replicate it. We can get ether,” Oliver replies. Schneider glances at Oliver curiously for a moment. Surely he’d misheard Oliver? “I can’t supply too incredibly much at once, but it’s incredibly potent.”

“Where and how could you even get ether?” Oliver shuffles in his seat uncomfortably at Schneider’s question, glancing around the room nervously. Or- Schneider realizes- scanning the room carefully. 

“It’s in my bloodstream,” Oliver admits quietly after determining it is safe to do so. Schneider arches his brows.

“That’s impossible. The only ones who have ether streaming through their veins are deities,” Schneider counters. Then- between his knowledge of what Oliver can do and the fact he actually does know the first two letters of Oliver’s species. “You’re an Olympian?” 

“Yes,” Oliver confirms. 

“Huh. Who would’ve thought, I’m friends with an actual Greek god,” Schneider can’t help but be surprised. Oliver rolls his eyes.

“Actually- just Olympian. I’m not a god. I’m not almighty, as you definitely know by now. You’ve needed to help my sorry ass several times by now,” Oliver protests. Schneider leans back in his chair, cocking his head in acknowledgement to that. 

“Alright. Extracting ether from you- how does it work? Doesn’t it damage you somehow?” 

“I’m not entirely sure. I only became an Olympian five years ago, I’ve never done it before. It’s streaming through my veins though, so surely it’s extractable. Since it’s so potent, I doubt we’d need much. We’ll just ensure we make the narcotics and that you get our presence out on the street while we ensure I recover for when we’re actually included into the network.” 

“Agreed,” Schneider nods. “Ether is- fluid, right? I think I have contact from the last time I went undercover who can get me a recipe for narcotics based on a powerful liquid. He might even be able to help spread our name so the network catches on quicker. How about you try and find out how to extract the ether from your veins while I go and see if I can reach out to Hansel.” 

“Hansel?” Oliver asks, raising an amused eyebrow.

“Hey, my nick is Popeye. Nobody said they had to be very serious,” Schneider points out. “I’ll be back in three hours tops. I’ll bring lunch too, since the fridge is rather barren and I can imagine you need nutrients if you’re going to be harvesting your own blood.” 

“Alright. I’ll see you then.”


	4. Chapter 4

Schneider has to search a little before he finds Hansel. He may have known a rough location of the man, he’s not familiar in Hamburg, let alone the underworld of Hamburg. He manages to locate Hansel, ‘explaining’ how his superiors had ordered him to Hamburg to extend their business, but making it clear that they would be willing to cooperate with an already existing network within the city. He also explains how they had recently been able to obtain a rather potent opium but they were still experimenting with the most ideal dosages and ingredient combinations, which he gets tips for. With a rough draft of the recipe now in his possession, he makes his way to the supermarket where he does enough groceries to last for a few days before grabbing some Chinese take-out too, making his way back to the apartment calmly. 

Oliver is sitting at the dining table when Schneider walks in, several vials laid out on the table. Schneider greets him, receiving a gesture that Oliver is still busy in return. He busies himself with putting the groceries in the cabinets and fridge before he grabs the Chinese, two plates and some cutlery and makes his way to the dining table.

“Put the needle down, Oli. You need to eat. How much blood did you even extract?” Schneider comments. “I realize you’re more hardy than I previously thought, but even you can’t live without blood.” Oliver sighs, but he obeys regardless, putting the needle down on the table after filling another vial. He accepts the plate of food Schneider sets in front of him.

“Thanks,” he murmurs. They eat in silence for a while before Schneider finishes up (being less hungry due to the fact that he hadn’t spent the morning trying to bleed himself dry) and takes one of the vials. 

“I’ll assume ether is the silver substance in here?” Schneider asks, twisting the vial in his hands. It’s a rather different texture and colour than he’d expected. The majority is an extremely dark red, bordering on black, with swirls of silver inside. 

“Actually, no. The silver is my genetic makeup,” Oliver corrects him. Schneider glances at Oliver curiously at that. “It makes sense, in a way. Humans and most types of supernaturals creatures have their DNA in their blood. Since I don’t technically have blood, but an ether-mixture inside of my veins, my DNA has to be inserted a different way.” 

“Alright,” Schneider nods, trying to think as to how they would make pure ether out of the mixture. “Ether doesn’t boil quickly, does it? We can filter it by fire.” 

“Yes, but we’ll first need to take my DNA out of there. We can’t have some lowlife criminals temporarily having my abilities.”

“What? Mere mortals can have Olympian abilities?” Oliver cocks his head. 

“Yes and no. It doesn’t give you the ability to control the domains the way we do, but it does give you all of the other ones. Now, I’m quite sure they wouldn’t even know about some of them and wouldn’t be able to use a few others, but the ones they do find out can still be dangerous and they’ll be lots harder to take down besides.” 

“O-kay. So we definitely need to extract that from the ether. Any ideas as to how to do that? And how to dispose of it afterwards? We don’t want anyone getting their hands on this,” Schneider says, placing the vial down before walking into the kitchen to grab a glass of water. 

“I’m not sure how to dispose of it, but I can bring it up to Olympus, where it’ll be safe from landing in the wrong hands. It shouldn’t be too difficult to filter out. I already did a trial here,” Oliver states, reaching for a small plate on the edge of the table. “Looks like it tries to stick together. If you manage to grab it in the first place, you can pull the entirety of it out.”

“Alright. Filter out your DNA by simply pulling it out, then boil the ether-mixture to have just ether remaining,” Schneider nods, glancing around the table at the number of vials. There’s 20 in total, though two have been opened when Oliver had been attempting something. Not to mention that Schneider has no idea how much ether actually streams through Oliver’s blood and he has a suspicion Oliver himself doesn’t know either. He makes a quick calculation in his head before- “Alright, how about we do the following- I ensure you get plenty of nutrients and do the groundwork for making our presence here known, as well as the fact that we have a new ‘designer drug’ that we’re trying to bring on the market and you try and produce 25 vials a day, resting plenty in between.” 

“25 isn’t that difficult,” Oliver immediately protests. “I can take more than that.” 

“While I do have faith in your ability to realize when you’ve drawn too much blood, I do need your help to create the actual drugs. I can make the basis for the pills but I have absolutely zero experience with ether and even less with filtering out deity DNA. Not to mention- we can’t make too much drugs. We’ll need about 500 pills to lay a foundation with the network here, but we also want to try and ensure they’ve run out of the pills by the time the SUI can book them.”

“Don’t call me a deity,” Oliver protests, making a face. Schneider actually grins. 

“Still haven’t gone to seen the psychologist I recommended, I see?” 

“I have. Turns out she didn’t exactly know what to say in order to make me feel better. After four sessions I gave up.” 

“My offer to talk to me still stands. We’ll have plenty of time once we’ve got the production of the pills going, considering we can’t exactly contact anyone besides each other in the meantime.”

“Oh, the joy. Getting stuck inside an apartment with a restless Schneider for the unforeseeable future.” Schneider grins at Oliver’s drawl. 

“You spend too much time with Richard. And I won’t get restless. I ensured there would be a small home-gym present to avoid exactly that. Now, I’m going out to buy the stuff we need to produce the pills,” Schneider says, reaching for the file to take out the addresses Till had scribbled down where he could buy their necessities. “In the meantime, you take five more vials, finish this and take a nap until I get home.” Oliver looks rather amused at being told what to do, but he at least doesn’t protest as Schneider rises from his chair and gets out of the apartment to buy their necessities. 

Schneider had gone to three shops to gather the entirety of their necessities and it takes four trips back and forth between the car and the apartment before he finally has everything inside. Oliver isn’t in the living room and the Chinese Schneider had ordered him to eat is indeed nearly empty. Satisfied that Oliver at least had obeyed him, he sets about preparing their lab for the production of the pills.

Despite his chief not having much faith in Schneider’s intellect, he’s generally the person to go undercover in their team. As such, he’s not unfamiliar with the process of producing narcotics, having landed a similar role three times before. He hooks up the cooler he’d bought first, storing the ingredients that should remain cold inside so they remain good first. He goes back into the living room to put Oliver’s vials into a rack before putting those in the cooler too. He then sets about hooking up the different glassware and the Bunsen burner in their appropriate places. He also prepares the system that would actually mix the liquid narcotics with a powder to form it into a pill.

Schneider has put on his safety-suit, goggles and gloves and is in the process of setting up a test-run to check if he’s set it up properly (without any actual narcotics in the mix for now) when he hears Oliver curse very loudly. Immediately on guard, Schneider leaves the test-run be for right now and walks into the living room.

“Oli, what’s wrong?” Schneider asks. Oliver turns around from where he’d been leaning with his head against the cabinets with startled wide eyes.

“Uh- uh- perhaps we should’ve waited until you got home before I took a nap. The uh- the vials are gone.” 

“Yes, I put them in the cooler in the lab,” Schneider explains, not entirely able to keep the amusement out of his voice. “Blood typically is stored in coolers, you know.” Oliver immediately looks more relaxed.

“Oh, good. Fuck, I was really afraid someone had taken it,” Oliver sounds very relieved and Schneider can’t help but grin.

“Why would anyone break in here and take only your blood? It’s not like they know what you are. Anyway- I’ll be right out. I’m setting up a test-run to see if I’ve set it up correctly to produce pills. Shouldn’t take me more than a few minutes anymore.” Oliver nods and Schneider walks back into the lab, finishing up setting the test-run up. After checking the recipe-sheet that he’s not forgotten anything in the actual test, he takes off goggles, gloves and suit again before hanging them up and leaving the lab to find Oliver with a cup of coffee on the couch.

“There should be some coffee left in the pot,” Oliver says when he sees Schneider leaving the lab.

“Unlike you, I try and limit my caffeine intake,” Schneider grins in response, taking a glass of water instead before he slinks down on the couch next to Oliver. “I’ll be glad when we’ve laid down the groundwork. I like undercover work, but I forgot how tedious laboratory work is.” Oliver laughs.

“Didn’t even realize you knew how to produce drugs, honestly.” 

“Not the first time they sent me undercover,” Schneider responds. “Had three other undercover jobs that required me to either help produce them or produce them entirely by my own. I’m better suited for it than the others. Or, Flake might’ve been able to do it, but he flat-out refuses. Till can’t do it because he’s a phoenix and stereotype about them is that they’re very righteous, which means the criminals don’t trust him. We try not to let Paul do it because he has trust-issues enough as it is. And Richard- well, he’s gone in before, but last time he died and got turned into a vampire, so not sure if we can easily convince him again.” 

“And chief doesn’t think you’re too dumb for it?” Oliver drawls in amusement. Schneider chuckles. 

“Somehow, no. I was very surprised by that as well. One of the times he sent me in to produce narcotics he even made my character a chemist. God I spent a lot of time with Flake, while he was teaching me about chemistry for it. I’m half-surprised Flake didn’t murder me. I think not even Till has been allowed to be inside of his house more than twice a week.” 

Schneider and Oliver are inside of the lab, where Oliver has opened up one of the vials onto a petri-dish to demonstrate to Schneider how to extract his DNA from the mixture. The entirety of it shifts nearly as soon as you breathe in its direction, so getting even a sliver of the DNA is difficult, but once Oliver has it between his thumb and his index-finger, he easily extracts the entirety of it from the batch. He places it into a different petri-dish which he would bring to Olympus once they’re done with the vials, then hands another vial to Schneider to see if he can manage it too. 

Schneider isn’t wearing the gloves at the moment, seeing as how the mixture is too shifty to be able to grab onto the DNA with gloves on. Oliver had demonstrated that before taking them off and still having trouble with it. Besides, Oliver’s immunity to diseases means that there is no risk of Schneider contracting anything from the blood anyway. He opens the vial and pours the mixture into a petri-dish, before using his thumb and index-finger to try and extract the DNA just as Oliver had done. It takes a few tries, but eventually he manages to grab onto the sliver of DNA and pull it out, adding it to the petri-dish that already contains the DNA retrieved from the other vial.

“Alright- we know how to extract your DNA. Now we just need to isolate the ether,” Schneider determines. He sets about making a set-up that would extract the different substances based on their boiling point. “Can you identify pure ether?” 

“Yes,” Oliver confirms. “It’s- difficult to explain, but I can tell if something is pure ether.” 

“Good. In that case- I’ll leave this set-up running, you fill some more vials and I’ll get out there to spread word about our pills. I’ll be back in time to cook, so you don’t have to worry about doing that yourself.” 

“I’m not a child that needs to have its first essential needs supplied,” Oliver protests, even as they both take off their protective clothing.

“Just because I’m cooking?” Schneider asks.

“And you telling me to finish my food and take a nap yesterday,” Oliver says, sounding a petulant. 

“There is exactly one person on our team who doesn’t make jokes about me sucking dick every single day. Might as well try and keep him alive and kicking.”

“It’d be very hypocritical of me to make jokes about your liking of dick while only one of us is exclusively into dick,” Oliver points out. Schneider grins. 

“I’ll see you in a few hours,” he tells Oliver, grabbing his coat and a bottle of water from the fridge before heading out the door. 

Schneider makes his way through a large portion of Hamburg, introducing himself to it. The file had contained notes of which spots the underworld of Hamburg was active in, but it always helps to get familiar. Even in Berlin, a city Schneider had grown up in and had lived for the majority of his life, he sometimes struggled to find the exact locations criminals would generally hole up. 

He doesn’t run into Hansel again, but he comes across another old contact he hadn’t even been aware had relocated out of Berlin. Star isn’t necessarily a criminal pin herself, but due to her specific- job- she has lots of contacts within the underworld. Fortunately for Schneider, they’d gotten along rather well and she flirtingly promises to mention his business to some of her clients who may be interested. 

Schneider is already back in the apartment, having turned on the coffee-machine immediately. He’s just in the process of gathering food from the refrigerator when he hears footsteps on the stairs. 

“I’ve already got the coffee-machine running.” Schneider states as he puts the ingredients for dinner on the counter. 

“I thought you didn’t drink coffee past five?” Oliver notes.

“I don’t, but you seem to die without caffeine.”

“You’re going to make a very good wife someday, Schneider,” Oliver chuckles as he makes his way over to the counter to anxiously wait for the coffee, ignoring Schneider flipping him the bird. Then, “Oh god, you scent heavily of perfume.” 

“I do?” Schneider murmurs, sniffing at himself. “Must be Star’s.”

“Oh, maybe you won’t be the wife after all. Is that why you’re making me nap all day? So you can get it on with the girls outside of Berlin?” Oliver grins as he hops onto the counter to simultaneously be able to immediately grab his coffee when it’s ready as well as look at Schneider as he cuts up the vegetables.

“I did not sleep with Star, if that’s what you’re quite unsubtly implying. She’s a prostitute. A relatively high-class one, but still,” Schneider protests. He runs the water to fill up a pot, putting it on the fire and adding some potatoes. “Do you want soup?” 

“No, thanks,” Oliver replies, shaking his head. 

“Did everything go alright today, anyway?” 

“All I had to do was draw my blood. That’s not very difficult. I should ask you how it went instead.” 

“There’s not much to do without having the narcotics yet,” Schneider responds. “Star promised she’d drop some information about us and the pills to some of her clients. Hansel promised he’d help yesterday as well. And I ensured I was spotted at some of the locations Till indicated the network is active. I’ve not checked if isolating the ether was successful yet, though, since I can’t recognize it, so you’ll have to check it after dinner. If we’ve succeeded, I’ll use tomorrow to get a batch of pills ready so we can begin distributing them and making our way to the network the day after.” 

“You’d think the chief would gladly give you more responsibility if he saw you working like this,” Oliver states. Schneider offers him a grin.

“Well, the idea is that nobody in the unit sees us work like this. Otherwise we’d immediately be identified as moles. Besides- I don’t care much for the chief’s opinion. Till gives us more complicated cases once in a while, and I’m perfectly happy working pests with you.”

“Specifically with me, huh? Or the others too?” Oliver questions. Schneider snorts.

“Are you kidding me? Flake would be awful in getting rid of pests. Besides, I have a suspicion he’d refuse anyway. Paul is a good detective, but he doesn’t excel in the physical tasks of our job, which is why we were generally paired up before. Richard is actually pretty good at it, but- now that he’s a vampire. Chief thinks wasting Till and Richard’s abilities is a shame.” 

“And yet he’s perfectly happy letting me do pests,” Oliver points out.

“Yes, I was very surprised about that too. I guess he must think you’re some sort of low-level supernatural. Which is really quite ironic,” Schneider points out.

“Mh. Good thing only you and I know that.”

“To some extent the rest of the team knows it too. They’ve seen you using your abilities a few times. Low-level supernatural don’t have abilities.”

“Right. Well, chief hasn’t seen it, anyway.” Schneider cocks his head in acknowledgement to that statement and Oliver jumps off the counter, setting the table so they can eat.

Isolating the ether actually works the first time, fortunately, which means that Schneider indeed busies himself the following day with making the narcotics, while Oliver draws more of his blood in order for them to make a proper batch to begin with.   
The next three days are spent simultaneously running the lab to make more pills as well as distributing the first batch so that the results of their pills could get to the network. Schneider ensures he keeps an eye out when he’s distributing them, looking for anyone within the network who might be keeping an eye on Schneider in return. By day five Oliver’s provided enough ether and sets about helping Schneider produce and distribute the narcotics. 

“Does it usually take this long to be approached when you already had contacts on the inside?” Oliver asks the evening of day six when they’re sitting on the couch watching television. 

“Yeah,” Schneider confirms. “The network will have plenty of runners, dealers and producers. They don’t need us for that. The thing they’ll need us for is to get access to our specific narcotics. I imagine it’ll take at least three weeks in total after we spread the first ones for them to get in touch with us, because they’ll want to ensure the product we deliver is good before they run the risk of letting us in.” 

“How long do you imagine the whole operation will take, then?” Oliver appears rather surprised by the timeframe laid out. 

“They don’t teach about undercover work at the academy, huh? Generally it takes at least four months. Considering we’re also dealing with a mole, however- might take closer to 6-9 months.” 

“I- uh- really?” 

“Yes?” Schneider sort-of asks, curious about Oliver’s displeased expression. Oliver looks a little uncomfortable. 

“I just- hadn’t realized we’d be living together that long.” 

“Oh,” Schneider says, waving Oliver’s concerned look away. “Don’t worry, I’ll give you your privacy. And it’s not as if you could’ve sucked dick in the apartment anyway. Too much that could potentially destroy our characters.” 

“I can suck your dick,” Oliver huffs. Schneider grins, spreading his legs demonstratively while curling his index-finger to gesture Oliver closer jokingly. 

“Well, go for it.” He laughs when Oliver rolls his eyes. “You can suck dick elsewhere. Or have it sucked. Or stick it up somewhere. Or have someone stick theirs up your ass. I don’t care. Undercover work can be taxing but, while we’re inside the apartment, we’re free to do everything we normally do, with the exception of bringing other people here. And you’re free to do anything that doesn’t compromise our identity outside of the apartment too. You can go clubbing, flirt with someone and go see movies or out for dinner or whatever.” 

“It was more about- never mind.” 

“Cropping things up while you’re stuck with each other for the foreseeable future isn’t a good idea, you know. You can tell me what’s up,” Schneider states. Oliver shuffles uncomfortably again, glancing at his feet. 

“I uh- I- are you sure it’s a bad idea to crop things up.” 

“What in the world could possibly be so bad that you couldn’t tell me? One of us being an almighty deity and one of us being a mere human mortal,” Schneider says in an attempt to lighten the mood for Oliver to actually state his issue. It doesn’t really work, based on the fact that Oliver continues to fidget nervously. “Alright, alright. I know you protested you’re not almighty, but it wasn’t that bad of a joke, was it?” 

“It wasn’t,” Oliver says, though it sounds more of an automatic answer. Schneider sighs and puts his finger against Oliver’s chin to make him look at Schneider. 

“You can tell me, Oli.” Oliver chews his lip, initially refusing to look up into Schneider’s eyes despite Schneider pointing him in the right direction. Eventually he sighs and does look up. 

“It appears that I have a bit of a- crush on you,” Oliver admits. 

“Oh,” Schneider replies rather unintelligibly. “So you don’t want to share an apartment with me because- you’re nervous about it?” 

“Nervous that you’d find out, yeah. Though- well, you already found out now, I suppose.” Schneider can’t help a grin at Oliver’s comment.

“Yes, I’m the best interrogator in the unit, I’m sure,” Schneider drawls.

“I think it helps that I can’t really resist you, an advantage I’m sure you can’t press with most of our suspects.” 

“I don’t know about that. I’m handsome, I’m funny, my voice is nice and sultry and I’m strong as hell to boot,” Schneider boasts himself. Oliver arches a brow. “Well, alright, I’m not stronger than you now, but if we’d met- how long ago did you say you were turned? Five years?- if we’d met six years ago I’d have kicked your skinny ass.” Oliver laughs happily.

“Well, I agree with the other ones anyway. Not to mention, according to Till you suck dick real well.” 

“Oh, I do. I’d offer to demonstrate, but then I’ll be totally irresistible to you.” 

“Honestly, you already are,” Oliver snorts. Schneider considers him carefully for a moment.

“How long has this been playing?” Schneider wonders. Oliver glances away from Schneider and grabs his cup, to get up and refill it with coffee. Schneider easily recognizes the attempt to stall for time, but he doesn’t comment on it.

“About two months now,” Oliver admits. “Possibly three.”

“So- before we left, your invites to hang out at your place? Was that because you wanted to try something?” 

“I wouldn’t take advantage of you,” Oliver quickly states.

“And I wasn’t worried you would. I didn’t mean to enquire if you wanted to take advantage of me. I meant to ask if you invited me over to try and start something between the two of us,” Schneider clarifies. Oliver blushes as he glances at his feet.   
“Perhaps,” Oliver admits after a few silent moments. Then, “Guess it was stupid, though. I’m sure I’m not the only one who wants to get with you. And why would you be interested in me?” 

“Shut up, Oli,” Schneider says, chuckling as he does so. “First of all, I sincerely doubt all that many, if any aside from you, people are interested in me. I am bad at being serious, after all. It gets annoying after a while, trust me. I’m fairly sure if I hadn’t already lost my eye, my mates in the military would’ve taken it. Sometimes I’m still surprised they never made good on their promise to take my remaining eye,” Schneider jokes. Then, remembering the conversation and ironically proving his point about having difficulty staying serious, “As to why I would be interested in you? Oliver, are you kidding me? You’re a wonderful guy. You’re handsome, you’re nice and tall so that I could be the little spoon, you’re funny, you’re kind. Hell, you’re super-modest despite the fact that you’re literally divine.” Oliver actually laughs about the last part. 

“But you’re not interested in me,” Oliver eventually says after his laugh dies down. Schneider considers him carefully for a moment. 

“Because I haven’t displayed any interest?” Schneider guesses. “Oliver, it’s- You know I see a psychologist, right? And you know how I mentioned that I’ve seen a lot of colleagues come off the field with more serious wounds than just missing an eye? I- compartmentalise. I lost several close friends when I was still in the military. Figuratively, my brain just created a big box and every colleague was placed inside that box. I could get friendly, but I couldn’t form attachments. Who knows how long it’d take before this colleague would- would die. Since I left the military, and joined the SUI, it had been going a lot better. That’s why I’d actually mark our team as friends. Years ago, I’d never have done that. But then,” Schneider sighs and squares his jaw. “Then Richard died. And yes, I know that he was turned into a vampire and therefor still lives, but he still died. We would have lost him if someone hadn’t decided to turn him. For me, it served as a reminder that- Even though I no longer work in an active war-zone, we do run a risk every day. It set me back quite a bit. My boxes, that were sort of folding so people could step out, became more fixed again. “

“And I went in that box.” Oliver concludes. 

“Yes,” Schneider nods. 

“So I’m in the box marked ‘colleagues’?” Oliver asks. Schneider snorts, making Oliver look puzzled.

“Hell no. I put you there, certainly. You’re an escaping bastard though. No matter how many times I put you back in the box and even closed the box behind you, you kept crawling out and jumping into the ‘friends’ box. You were so stubborn climbing out I stopped resisting it,” Schneider explains. Oliver grins a little bit and this time Schneider is the one to look puzzled.

“Oh, I just have a visual image of a tiny me trying to crawl out of a box while you keep just,” Oliver flicks his finger demonstratively, “Launching me right back in every time. I’m even wearing Band-Aids and sporting bruises the next time I crawl out.” Schneider manages a chuckle. “I bet Paul is a mischievous bastard even in your head and is helping me climb out of the box too. Or he’s just distracting you while I sneak by in the background.” That makes Schneider laugh full-out instead of just chuckling. 

“You’re in the wrong box now. But I’m sure you could be stubborn enough to climb right out of that one too. Hell, who knows, Till might even help you this time. Distracting me with all his gay jokes,” Schneider jokes. Oliver laughs too now. 

“Guess I just have to be patient, then. If you think there’s a chance, I can definitely be patient. I’m immortal now, after all,” Oliver says. Then, furrowing his brow- “Wait, how are you actually going to do your therapy here? Surely if you’ve been doing that for so long, it’s not good to just skip the months while we’re here?” 

“Skype,” Schneider replies easily. “I don’t physically have to be there for her to help me.” They both remain silent for a bit before Schneider props his feet up on the table. “So I guess no jokes about us sucking dick near each other soon, then?” 

“I’m promising no such thing,” Oliver states, looking rather smug. “I’ll make you so uncomfortable I’ll have the apartment all to myself at all times except for when you’re actually asleep. And then I’ll record a tape or something that I put besides your bed that sounds like me breathing. Who knows, I might even add some fapping sounds, to totally weird you out.”

“You’re an evil bastard, you know that?” Schneider says, even though he laughs as he hits Oliver with a pillow in response.


	5. Chapter 5

“I’ll route the VPN for our Skype-session. Could you get the files in order meanwhile?” Schneider asks Oliver a little under three weeks later, sitting at the dining table with his laptop and a glass of water. The network had finally expressed an interest in cooperating to share in the profits of the new narcotics. The team would have to be notified through more than just the short texts they were at liberty to send outside of a VPN-secured Skype call. 

Schneider finishes up setting the VPN before Oliver finishes organizing the files, and Schneider goes into the kitchen to turn on the coffee-machine. He normally doesn’t drink coffee this late, but he knows the call could last a while, both parties needing to divulge enough information to last a while, since they could hardly set it up as a daily thing. 

By the time the coffee is ready, files are organized and the Skype call is waiting, Oliver and Schneider both take a seat in front of the laptop, Schneider dialling Till’s number. It rings several times, since they could only give a rough timeframe on the call, but Till answers eventually, the rest of the team soon appearing into view when Till confirms that it’s indeed Oliver and Schneider on the other end.

“You’ve made contact, then?” Till asks. 

“Yes,” Schneider confirms, nodding his head, “We’ve made 1500 pills of which we’ve now distributed a little over 300. The network noticeably kept tabs on us after eight days. We were approached late yesterday afternoon by a man who calls himself ‘The Nose’.” Schneider watches as Flake flips through some files, before he holds up a picture. “Yes, that’s him. He told us to come to a warehouse at an abandoned tire-factory on Bresenstrasse and bring 100 pills. I am not sure how they arrived there. There were no cars, bikes or anything visible when we approached the building, but we weren’t able to search thoroughly because we couldn’t create suspicion. We were greeted by The Nose and three other men. One of them clearly a bruiser, but he didn’t identify himself. One of them introduced himself as Nepos and the remaining one was Nepos’ body-guard.” Flake holds up a picture of Nepos and his body-guard correctly, then holds up several other pictures.

“Was one of these the bruiser?” Flake asks.

“Yes, the second from the left,” Schneider confirms. Flake takes it out and holds it up. The identity tag the team had created for him reads that his nick is ‘Mawler’. 

“Your drugs must have made quite an impression if Nepos himself came out to meet you for them,” Paul muses, looking thoughtful. “He’s one of the king-pins in the network. His family owns a number of clubs and restaurants in the city that play a major part in their distributions. He normally remains out of sight so that it becomes difficult to pin any evidence on him.” 

“Well, our drugs are quite something. Flake obviously is a good Chemichs teacher and Oliver could get his hands on a very powerful base-substance,” Schneider confirms. “You sent Davids to test them and I believe he’s had quite some experience, right? He told me it was a high unlike any he’d experienced before, with very little comedown.” 

“You’re not giving them the recipe, are you?” Flake looks sceptical about just how good their drugs are.

“Of course not, I’m not an idiot,” Schneider huffs. “Although Nepos did want to know what was the basis for our pills. So let me continue. We brought the 100 pills and after checking that we had, we were brought into a small office/laboratory inside the factory. Nepos took three pills and instructed The Nose to do some tests on them to see if they were the actual pills we’d been distributing. He then laid out a deal for us, that relied on us giving the information of what basis we use for producing them. I told him that we would not give that information, but that we were interested in working together. That we would continue supplying them with the pills for as long as they didn’t screw us over. Nepos didn’t seem very pleased with us, his Mawler and his guard looked at us very threateningly, and we explained to him that if he took us out of the picture that those 100 pills would be all they’d ever see of the drugs. 

Eventually he agreed to a cooperation that would leave the production completely in our hands, as long as we supply them with 500 pills a month. At the moment, we only have enough for the first two months, but once the groundwork has been laid out for us within the network, we will create enough to last half a year. Right now, we’re only at liberty to use their runners, and we don’t yet have the information to individual bars, individual dealers or the big names within the network, but judging by their excited first reactions, we won’t have to wait too incredibly long to have access to that as well.” 

“Good job,” Till nods approvingly. “If you can, try and make the report of what happened with Nepos as detailed as possible. Paul is right, it’s always been tough to pin him down. Partly because he protects himself with legal businesses that make it difficult to prove his money is coming from illegal sources, partly because the mole within the SUI identifies undercover work for him. Once you have access to the network, try and make contact with these four individuals, ‘Skylar’, ‘Moventas’, ‘Peryudite’ and ‘Maventem’.” Flake holds up the pictures for each of the names. “Peryudite should be fairly easy, since he appears to be their chemist and is often creating new drugs. He will likely seek you out. Don’t give him the information he needs, but keep him fed enough that you may get some dirt on him. Moventas en Maventem are twins who appear to retrace the network’s steps and to erase and destroy any evidence they leave behind that could link the king-pins to the actual crimes. You might have to create a lab ‘accident’ that they will have to fix to protect your identity. Skylar is a name that is very elusive and it took us a while to even come across it the first time. We suspect that he’s in charge of trying to branch out the network to different cities, but we have no definitive proof for that even for ourselves. And again, do try and keep an eye on who could be the possible moles within the SUI.”

“Understood,” Schneider nods. “We will make contact within the network and we’ll brief you again when we have the opportunity to.”

“Very well,” Till nods, glancing around his team to see if anyone else has anything to add. 

“Don’t kill each other out there,” Richard states. 

“Or fuck each other’s brains out. You’ll need them,” Paul adds. Till rolls his eyes while Flake heaves a long-suffering sigh.

“The network can probably set us up with some hookers. We’ll be fine,” Schneider winks, before he closes the connection. He takes the file from Oliver’s hands, going over the notes to check they wrote everything down. “Great- done for the day. Finally,” he adds, seeing that it’s nearly 11 in the evening. “I’m actually going to bed already too. I want to be at the Allee before eight tomorrow. I have a suspicion it might be a drop-off point.” 

“Should I come with you?” Oliver asks. Schneider considers the offer for a moment.

“I should go alone. It’ll be suspicious if both of us are there. Besides- we’ll need more pills, which means we need more ether as well. I’ll cover the streets tomorrow, that way you can tap some more blood. I think it’s best to have all of them ready to go before we have to try and make contact with those four Till mentioned.” 

“Alright. Goodnight then,” Oliver says. 

“Night, Oli,” Schneider responds, taking his phone off the table and making his way up the stairs. 

“We’ve got enough ether now, right?” Oliver asks, joining Schneider in the lab to put the vials into the fridge. Schneider holds up his finger while he finishes adding the powder into the set-up, then turns around to face Oliver and make some quick calculations in his head. 

“Uh- We need three more vials, I think. It’s just tomorrow though. After that you’ll be done being a pincushion for quite a while. Unless you can’t spare it,” Schneider taunts, wiggling his brows. 

“Oh, I don’t mind giving up my blood. Makes you fuss over me and do groceries and make dinners and coffee. I’d almost feel like your lucky boyfriend,” Oliver drawls, making Schneider chuckle.

“Well, my lucky boyfriend, how about you let me wrap up setting this run up by leaving me be for just a few more minutes? This is meticulous work, and you’re distracting.”

“-ly handsome? Funny? Amazing?” Oliver teases. Schneider grins even as he flips Oliver off, who smirks as he makes his way out of the lab and into the living room instead. Schneider takes a vial and a petri-dish, extracting Oliver’s DNA into the petri-dish before putting the ether-mixture into an Erlenmeyer. He repeats the process four more times before securing the Erlenmeyer above the burner, which he turns on before taking off his protective clothing and hanging it up for the day.

“More pills brewing,” Schneider announces as he makes his way to the counter, noting Oliver had already run the kettle and is eagerly pouring himself a glass of hot water, adding a teabag and some sugar before slinking down on the couch. 

“Long day, huh?” Oliver asks. 

“Not so much long. Lab work is just so tedious. Not to mention- your stupid DNA doesn’t like letting go of the Ether. Or the other way around. Either way, you have to fish in the liquid for a while before you can extract it,” Schneider murmurs, propping his feet up on the table and blowing on his tea to cool it down. 

“If you took some of it you’d get vitalised. I only need to sleep about four or five hours a week,” Oliver points out. Schneider laughs and rolls his eyes.

“Well, you’re not wrong,” Schneider acknowledges. “But I should hope the first liquid I get that originates from inside of you comes from a very different portion of your body.” Oliver smirks.

“Oh, you can get at that,” Oliver states, gesturing to his crotch. Schneider grins as he sips his tea. He’s actually really happy that Oliver and he can still joke together, despite the fact that Oliver apparently has a crush on Schneider. 

Even if, Schneider has to admit even if only to himself, he has been viewing Oliver in a slightly different light since. They still act the same around each other, but Schneider finds himself imagining how some of Oliver’s habits would be very pleasant to live with while imagining how some things could drive him crazy. Fortunately, there’s far more of the first than of the second, considering they don’t have a choice but to live together for the next few months. The main disadvantage to Oliver is his morning-mood. For a man that doesn’t technically need nearly as much sleep as he actually gets, he is awfully grumpy until he gets coffee inside of him. 

Shaking those thoughts off and putting the empty teacup on the table he reaches forward to take the remote and flick through the channels, seeing as how Oliver didn’t appear that interested in what’s actually on the channel he changed it to. It appears some kind of talk-show, which Schneider has never been interested in. He changes through until he finds an action-movie, glancing at Oliver with an arched brow for his approval to watch it before putting the remote down next to him and focusing on the TV. 

“Where is this lion’s den even located?” Oliver asks, sitting in the passenger’s seat with the suitcase containing the first week’s delivery. Schneider furrows his brows, glancing over at Schneider briefly before focusing on traffic. 

“Did I not give you the file with instructions to read it through? Oli, we’re on a high-profile case and we’re undercover. Some mistakes could quite literally kill us- or, me anyway,” Schneider corrects himself, since he’d be surprised if the network knew how to kill Oliver, “And some can blow this entire operation up.” 

“Oh, damn, sorry,” Oliver says, sounding more alert all of a sudden. 

“You did read through the entire thing? We can’t afford to make mistakes, Oli,” Schneider urges again. Till would never believe him if Schneider told he was actually the one being serious and responsible for a change. Flake might even write ‘dirty liar’ on his desk, like the time he wrote ‘annoying gnome’ on Paul’s desk following a successful but not entirely pleasant case of exterminating a gnome-nest that ended up with Flake covered in manure. 

“Yes, I’m up to speed.”

“Then why exactly did you ask me where we were going?” Schneider drawls. 

“Sorry there was- doesn’t matter, I’m back here now. I figured the car-ride was safe to do some damage-control.” Schneider arches his brow, but decides not to delve further into Oliver’s response.

“Fine, just ensure you’re paying attention once we’re inside. And remember- I don’t care what your opinion on warlocks is, as far as they’re concerned, you are one.” The two of them had had quite a discussion about that two days prior, with Oliver insisting that he couldn’t pass for a warlock because of his markings while Schneider insisted they couldn’t afford to let them realize Oliver might be quite powerful and could help them with more than just distributing narcotics. 

They pull up at the address they were told to report at, Oliver taking the suitcase before following Schneider toward the back-door of a nightclub. Schneider knocks on the door three times, before a heavy-duty security guard steps outside. Glancing between the two of them, the note in Schneider’s hand and the suitcase they’re carrying, he steps aside to let them enter. 

Schneider is careful about glancing around, hoping Oliver does so instead. He’d need to visibly move the other eye around to accommodate his blind eye, after all. Once they’re more familiar faces here, he could do so as long as it’s subtle, but now- well, all eyes would be on them. They’re lead through the building until they reach an office, which opens up to reveal Nepos and the bruiser sitting inside. 

“Ah, our new colleagues. Thank you, Fishes, you’re free to go,” Nepos tells him, getting up and shaking both their hands with a wide smile. “Please, have a seat. We will complete the exchange after our chat. How has this first month of cooperation been for you?” 

“We’re happy as long as the boss is happy. Which he seems to be,” Schneider says. “It’s easier to work with an existing network within a city than to try and conquer it.” Schneider is fully aware of the veiled threat and he keeps a sharp eye on Nepos. Who gracefully ignores it, just like Schneider had expected. 

“Yes, fortunately, it seems that we are happy with the cooperation as well. For now. The pills you supply us with are already becoming very popular. We could help with the production. I imagine adding an entire city’s demand to your production cycle must be a heavy workload for your producers. We’re perfectly willing to aid.” Schneider leans back with a lazy smile. 

“I believe we already agreed that the production would be in our own hands. As to our production-resources- don’t fret. We will be able to keep up with the demand.”

“We are able to help each other more if we’re more forthcoming.”

“Indeed,” Schneider nods, “If we’re more forthcoming. Plural. Why should we divulge the information about how our product comes to be if you give us nothing but runners. Much as the boss appreciates the cooperation, we have our own runners.” Nepos actually laughs. 

“Alright, I’ll tell you what- deliver us the same order next month and I shall begin to make arrangements as to how we could both benefit from our cooperation more. Are we in agreement?” 

“We shall make the same delivery this time next month,” Schneider agrees. Nepos arches a brow, then gives a tiny hint of an actually genuine smile. 

“Tell your boss that he can stop with the ‘I’m not a newbie act’. Colour me informed," Nepos tells them. Schneider nods, then gets up to shake Nepos’ hand. It doesn’t take more than a second before someone opens the door, leading the two of them into a different room where there are several distributors working on packaging pills. Oliver, holding the briefcase containing their order, places it on the table next to an identical briefcase. The two are exchanged and Oliver opens it to check the money inside, before nodding to Schneider. They’re transported out of the building with no further business or detours, before they head straight to the apartment to make notes of what had happened today and a beginning of how the layout of the building was. 

“Mh- groundwork is laid out, production is done for a few months and we don’t currently have to meet up with anyone in the network? Oli, my friend, I think we might have our first proper weekend off,” Schneider tells Oliver, glancing up when said man comes walking out of the bathroom while still brushing his teeth. “Oh come on- I don’t want your spit everywhere around the apartment. Stay in the bathroom.” Oliver rolls his eyes but obeys, finishing up in the bathroom before walking out several minutes later. 

“Then why did you tell me while I was in the bathroom?” Oliver points out.

“I thought I heard the door open. How should I know you randomly opened it instead of walking out,” Schneider protests. 

“Glad to finally have a weekend off though,” Oliver admits. “It’s draining. And I didn’t even do the production. Lucky to have you as a partner I guess, everything I hear so far points to production normally being too much for one person to handle.”

“Yes, but I am simply amazing,” Schneider arrogantly moves his head, making Oliver grin. “Nah, it’s not so bad though. Yeah, most of the time more people work on it but- well, I think we both know I like to keep busy. There’s not much to do here, given that we’re undercover and can’t compromise that.” 

“Tonight, you’re not going to do shit. I am going to take some of the money we made last week and buy up a liquor store.” Schneider doesn’t protest that plan, even though he has to chuckle about the way Oliver says it. 

“Please buy up the liquor itself- I know I like to keep busy, but I don’t feel much for doing the entire administration for a liquor store in addition to this.” 

“Hey, what actually happens to this money once we’re not undercover anymore?” Oliver asks. “I mean- It’s money we made. And we made it legally, since they’re the ones who sent us to do this.” 

“I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that. The money goes back into- taxes, I guess. We don’t get to keep it either way.”

“So what’s the upside to being undercover, then?”

“Spending time with me, obviously,” Schneider repeats his earlier arrogance, “Other than that- well, we do get to spend it while we’re undercover. And since we have to protect our identity, nothing but automatic payments are written off our own bank-accounts while we’re undercover, so that saves a bit. Besides, you get a bonus for going undercover.” 

“Ah, so at least I’m not stuck with your arrogant ass for nothing then,” Oliver dramatically sighs. Schneider merely wiggles his ass in Oliver’s direction. 

“Bring rum for me,” Schneider calls out when Oliver ignores it in favour of actually going to go liquor shopping. 

They’re sitting in front of the TV that evening, although they are playing some sort of monopoly drinking game Oliver had decided to bring with him from the liquor shop. It gets you drinking, for sure. Schneider had already had to down his glass at once twice and he was only just in the second round. Oliver had been a bit more lucky in downing his glass, but he’d needed to take several of the shots. 

“I think it’s a good thing we don’t have anything scheduled for tomorrow,” Schneider points out with a grin. “I’m probably going to be dead.”

“I’m not. I heal quickly,” Oliver grins happily. 

“Great- you can hydrate and feed me, then,” Schneider immediately decides. Oliver doesn’t respond, merely moves Schneider’s shot-glass in his direction after landing on a spot that allows him to ‘give out 2 shots’. Schneider takes it and downs the shot, refilling it to do so again. Taking the dice and throwing them, he merely manages to land on a spot that forces him to take two more shots. “I’m pretty sure I’m going to hate you for bringing this game tomorrow.”

“Not today?” 

“Nah,” Schneider grins as he takes the shot, “I must admit I rather like drinking.” Oliver laughs, taking the dice again. 

They continue for several rounds before both of them slouch on the couch, nursing their respective choice of booze lazily after all the fast drinking. The TV is turned on and it’s on some comedy show neither of them pay too much attention to, but in Schneider’s drunken stupor it’s funny enough to draw some laughs from him. 

“You look cute like this,” Oliver admits, making Schneider realize that Oliver’s eyes were focused on him rather than the TV. Schneider grins as he glances away from the TV to look at Oliver instead.

“You say that as if I don’t normally look cute,” he teases. 

“Actually- you’re very handsome and sexy, but no, generally you don’t look cute. You look too menacing for that, with your eye and the numerous scars,” Oliver admits, his eye falling to a particularly visible scar just below Schneider’s neck. 

“Oh,” Schneider responds dumbly, a bit taken aback by that answer. Although he supposes that Oliver has a point. “If you have makeup with you, we could try hiding the scars with that stuff women use to hide their pimples.” Oliver laughs. 

“Actually, I can get some makeup. I can teleport, remember?”

“Is teleporting dangerous when you’re drunk? Like driving? Could you end up in the trash-bin next to wherever you wanted to teleport,” Schneider asks, already laughing about the visual in his head of Oliver stuck in a bin, his legs sticking out and flailing wildly in an attempt to get out. 

“No,” Oliver shakes his head. Schneider glances at him.

“Then why did you never go home after a party? Why crash at mine instead?” Oliver’s eyes widen, clearly not having expected Schneider’s question. After a moment, he shrugs.

“I don’t- I don’t know actually. The last few times before we went undercover I’d say it’d be a good excuse to be near you. Before that- I don’t know. I guess I already enjoyed your presence and just didn’t realize it yet,” Oliver admits. Schneider glances at Oliver for a moment longer before he finds his mouth twisting into a smile.

“That’s pretty adorable, actually.”

“I’m not adorable,” Oliver quickly protests. 

“Yeah, you are,” Schneider counters. His smile fades when Oliver actually seems to genuinely get upset. “Oli? What’s wrong? Is adorable such an insult?” 

“No. It’s just not true,” Oliver says. Schneider remains silent this time, merely waiting until Oliver takes a deep breath. “I’m responsible for so much death and destruction. I’m definitely not adorable.” 

“You keep saying that you do all these bad things. Yet we’ve been spending the past weeks practically on each other’s ass and I’ve never seen you doing bad. I think you’re judging yourself too harshly, Oli.” 

“Am I?” Oliver huffs. He then stretches to be able to reach the newspaper on the other couch (they’d removed it from the table to be able to play the game) and opens it until he comes across an article he points out to Schneider. 

“More people saved from under the rubble caused by tsunami in Indonesia,” Schneider reads. “So what do you have to do with-” he trails off when he glances at Oliver, sees his markings shifting more wildly than Schneider has seen them before. Schneider takes a deep breath, glancing at Oliver, “Poseidon isn’t a name, is it? More like a title?” 

“Well- it used to be a name. The original Olympian whose domains were oceans and tectonics was named Poseidon. When the original Olympians began to die and be replaced, they decided to just keep the names,” Oliver murmurs. Schneider glances at Oliver, but Oliver doesn’t meet his eye. Instead, Schneider takes Oliver’s hand in his and trails the markings with his index-finger until they slow down a little. Oliver, finally, glances at Schneider. “You’re not scared? Appalled?” 

“Of what? You?” Schneider asks. “Of course not.” 

“You know what I am now. You can fill in the blanks of how much bad I’ve done. Tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes- they’re all my doing.” 

“Yeah, but think of all the good you do,” Schneider says, “You sustain the oceans. All the life inside it is alive thanks to you. And- well, I’m not too sure about what Poseidon has to do with life on land- honestly, I didn’t even know it wasn’t just oceans that were in your domain- I can make an educated that you supply the new land too, if you’re responsible for earthquakes. Volcanoes nurture the land. And in recent history, I don’t remember many volcanic eruptions that didn’t have a warning for people to evacuate in time. I’m not saying you’re not responsible for plenty of bad- I mean, I know that I can’t make you believe so. I’m just hoping you realize you’re responsible for just as much good.” 

“Do you really think so?” Oliver asks, hope colouring his voice.

“Of course. I mean- I’m not too knowledgeable on Greek legends- And unless you decide to tell me shit I won’t be, because I’m not the kind of person to go on a research spree regarding Poseidon. It’s just not- not fair to you. But yeah, from what I know and or reason, definitely yes. You’re the one who joined our unit because he wanted to do extra good.” Oliver still looks slightly hesitant and Schneider can’t help but lean over more and press a quick peck to Oliver’s cheek. 

“How is it not fair to me?” Oliver asks. Schneider has to chuckle about the apparent randomness of that question.

“Well- it’s not as if you can look up information about me.”

“You’re human. I was human for the majority of my life. I know some shit about being human, believe it or not.” Schneider chuckles even more now. 

“Fine, I can go to the library tomorrow and check out some books.”

“No, you can’t. We’re undercover and I’m clearly not a warlock, despite what we’re telling the network. They might just have a brain and realize the link between you checking out that book and me.” 

“Alright, when we get back to Berlin, then,” Schneider offers up. Oliver rolls his eyes and shoves at Schneider, who laughs happily now. He grabs his glass to take a slow sip.

“You’re the first one who knows,” Oliver admits quietly. “My family doesn’t even know.” 

“I’m honoured,” Schneider does his best Richard-impression. Oliver rolls his eyes, even as he too takes his glass back in hand.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for this chapter being a little shorter than the rest. Couldn't break it up the way I'd have liked to '^^  
> For clarification, any lines between double quotes ("line") are spoken out loud, as I've used throughout this story. Any lines between single quotes ('line') are mentally spoken. This will stay the convention through this story as well.

Oliver appears fidgety the following day. Schneider doesn’t have to ask to understand that he’s nervous Schneider’s sober reaction might not be the same as his drunk reaction was. Schneider briefly debates confronting it during lunch, but he decides to just act the same as always instead. What better way to prove he genuinely doesn’t care what Oliver is, aside from his partner on the job, than to treat him the same as he has done. 

“Come on, the movie is about to begin. I have a headache, I need distraction,” Schneider calls from the couch. He actually has no idea what Oliver is doing upstairs, but sure enough, several moments later Oliver walks down the stairs. Instead of joining Schneider on the couch, however, he reaches into a cabinet before opening the microwave. “Oh, popcorn. Good idea. Is it sweet popcorn. Oh, even better, is it caramelized popcorn?” 

“No, it’s salty,” Oliver responds, “To keep the hydration you get today inside of you.”

“Oh come on, I’m not that hungover. Just a slight headache. Honestly, I’m shocked I’m not worse off,” Schneider says, and he actually means it. 

“You’re still getting salty popcorn.”

“You’re bossy,” Schneider whines. Oliver gives him a large grin before he brings the popcorn with him and sits down next to Schneider.

“You’re the one who ordered me to keep you fed and hydrated today. I’m really just following orders.” Schneider rolls his eyes, but he refrains from going into a discussion about it.

“Fine,” he says instead, “here is my mouth. Just toss it in whenever you feel like I’m not being salty enough.” 

“You’re always salty,” Oliver huffs. “But alright, I’ll stuff something salty in your mouth.” Schneider laughs before he shoves Oliver lightly, then settles into a comfortable position to watch the movie. 

“Schneider, where are you?” Oliver calls out as soon as the front door shuts behind him. 

“Gym,” Schneider responds between two presses. He hears Oliver walking up the stairs before the man stands in the doorway.

“I didn’t manage to get a visual. Want to know why?” Schneider puts the weights bar back onto its holder before he sits up, hearing Oliver’s serious tone of voice. “Apparently the network was aware there would be law-enforcement on the lookout at the den this afternoon.” 

“Was anyone from within the SUI there, or was it just you?” 

“I’m not entirely sure. It wasn’t any of the guys anyway. But there was someone who didn’t quite fit in the scene. I didn’t recognize him from the pictures we have in the file, but he certainly behaved like he was keeping a tight eye on the whole situation," Oliver responds. Schneider furrows his brows. Then he gets up and, grabbing Oliver’s wrist to make him follow, walks out of the gum and down the stairs, shuffling through the cabinet until he finds the folder he’s looking for. He takes out the picture and holds it up for Oliver to examine. “Yeah, he looks the same. He wasn’t wearing glasses today, but I imagine he can switch them for contact lenses.”

“That’s bad news,” Schneider sighs, rubbing a hand across his face for a moment. “This is Biggy V. He’s not- any type of legal law enforcement. He’s- well, he’s supposed to be a private investigator. It’s widely known that he actually helps to send innocent people to jail for the right price.”

“So what could he be doing here?” Oliver asks. “And how did you even know?” 

“I came across Star two days ago, she’d heard rumours Biggy V was active in Hamburg. I’d already laid out some lines yesterday to see if I could discover any truth behind those rumours, but I suppose this will do for sure. As to what he’d be doing here? At the den specifically?” Schneider’s eye meets Oliver’s, his brow arched, “He’s already once designed a very complicated plan for nearly an entire network to get away unscathed. The network here definitely has the finances and power to pull something like that off. It means Biggy is gathering information to see how to pull that plan off. It means that we have to work faster to nail the network. It also means that we need communication with the team.”

“What did it have to do with Moventas not showing up though?” Schneider takes the file with him to the table and sits on a chair, drawing his knee up and flicking the pen against the table.

“I don’t think Moventas was ever supposed to show up,” Schneider muses, “at least, assuming you picked up on the rumours in a non-human way?”

“Yeah, I kept an eye on Nepos’ office while I was waiting in the den,” Oliver agrees. 

“Lower or unreliable contacts wouldn’t have heard the rumours, they would’ve showed up in the den today. It ensures that Biggy has a starting point as to how to implement his plan, because he’ll have familiarized himself with runners and low-end producers and resellers. Meanwhile the actual kingpins wouldn’t have showed up, because they’ll later be filled in with people who either have a much smaller spot in the network or aren’t involved at all.” 

“Yes, but why wouldn’t the people involved in the network just speak up and say those aren’t their bosses? That they’re random runners.”

“Future prospects for when they get out of jail,” Schneider huffs, “Biggy generally makes pledge deals that deposit his suspects back on the street within 10 years. Most of those suspects are rather young and will still have a good chance to have their own emporium when they get out, but this time with lots more credit to their names because they supposedly played a major part in a well-functioning network before.” 

“Alright. So we need to inform the team and we need to work quicker. I’ll send Till a message to have the secure line set up for tonight.” 

“No, don’t do that,” Schneider shakes his head. “We wouldn’t have been sent there if it wasn’t some sort of test. We may not be a fixture within the network, we’re the only ones who can help them get our pills. We’re too valuable to just leave it to Biggy V to get rid of us. Everyone who’s been in either law enforcement or in a network long enough can recognize Biggy. They’ll be tracking our moves. Probably hoping we call our ‘boss’, so they can swoop in and try to get the information from him directly. Discovering we’re reaching out to the team researching them, however- well, it’d also be a good catch.”

“Then how do you intend to contact them?” Schneider swallows deeply and pinches the bridge of his nose. 

“Mentally contacting Richard,” Oliver looks very surprised by that statement. Understandably so, honestly. “I wasn’t exaggerating when I told you Richard took his transformation hard. He took it very hard. The first weeks he straight-out refused to feed. He thought he’d kill whoever he was feeding from because the scent of blood was so intoxicating. We watched him- well, we practically watched him die in front of us. Until I refused to watch it anymore and pretty much forced him to feed from me.”

“Wouldn’t he have refused that too?”

“Oh, he did,” Schneider confirms, “He refused the hell out of it. He was weakening though and I pointed out that I was hired as muscle for the unit. That I knew how to fend off a vampire and that I would do so, regardless of if it was Richard or not. He finally caved when I’d cornered him while having already cut my wrist. For the first few weeks, he solely fed off me. He didn’t dare to feed off others yet. However- in order to keep me healthy for that duration, he fed me his blood in return.”

“Creating a donor bond,” Oliver muses. Schneider nods. “I never knew you had that.”

“Well, we both kept it silent. Richard asked me to, plus I would have anyway because I knew how difficult it was for him. Besides, it’s a not bond we ever utilized before, since we generally see each other five days a week regardless. With the current situation however- well, they may keep extra tabs on us for a while, hoping we’ll eventually contact someone. We can’t afford that.” 

“Alright,” Oliver nods. “Then let’s contact him. Do you need anything for that?”

“Patience to deal with Richard,” Schneider jokes. “No, though, I don’t need anything.” Oliver nods and grabs them both a glass of water before he too sits down. Schneider mentally filters him out. He closes his eyes and focuses on Richard. It’s not easy, since Richard and he had literally only used their bond like this once, when Richard had had a panic attack about his new state of being in the middle of the night. That had been months ago. And while their bond would likely become team-knowledge after this contact, Schneider didn’t feel the need to share the fact that they had used it once before to calm Richard down. 

‘Schneider?’ Richard sounds curious, clearly not entirely sure if it’s actually Schneider that’s coming into his head when he finally does manage to do so. 

‘Yeah, it’s me,’ Schneider confirms. ‘We need to talk. Can you go to the toilet or something?’ 

‘Sure, give me a second,’ Richard responds. It takes a few more moments until Richard is on the toilet and closes the stall, leaning against it. ‘What’s up?’

‘I’m afraid we’ve run into a bit of an issue. Biggy V is here. I heard rumours the day before yesterday and Oliver was able to confirm it today. There was a gathering for the network where Moventas himself was supposed to give a briefing. Moventas obviously never showed up, supposedly because there was law enforcement present. Oliver saw Biggy acting strangely and when I showed him a picture, he positively identified him.’

‘That does complicate things a great deal, yeah,’ Richard confirms. He’s clearly thinking about it, judging by the silence that follows. ‘Have you been able to get a feel for how long Biggy has been working on it?’

‘No. I tossed a few lines out yesterday, but haven’t gotten more details than the fact that he is in town just yet. I don’t imagine he’s been here longer than a week so far, however. Rumours would have showed up sooner. He’s not exactly an unknown figure within the business. Nor can he do incredibly much without seeing the network in action. Even so, he works fast. And considering the network doesn’t trust us yet- well, that’s a lot of work without a lot of resources or trust’. 

‘We need to do something drastic,’ Richard muses. He remains silent for a few moments again. ‘Alright, how about this- we both brainstorm possible ideas. After office-hours tonight, I’ll ensure the team is all together. We’ll be the communication link to make a plan.’ 

‘We’ll be hearing lots of bromance jokes when they realize we’re bonded.’ Schneider says and he can tell Richard’s amusement.

‘I’d say it’d be a nice change of pace from the regular dick jokes but- think it’s just going to be a specific dick in this case,’ Richard teases. Schneider huffs a quick laugh. 

‘Alright. You better get back to the others. I’ll hear from you tonight.’ Richard confirms it before they both close the link down. Schneider glances up to look at Oliver. “Richard will make contact again tonight. In the meantime, we’ll need to brainstorm something big to make the network trust us.” 

“We could help them eliminate their competition,” Oliver offers up. “What better way than to prove we’re valuable beyond our product than that?” 

“How do you plan to take out the competition? I know we don’t exactly have to do everything fully legal when we’re undercover, but shooting other criminals isn’t exactly an option.” 

“Well, it’s not. That doesn’t mean we can’t take them down. We can just destroy their basis of operation.”

“Becoming pyromaniacs isn’t encouraged either, to the best of my knowledge.” 

“How about very local earthquakes? Local enough to take out a warehouse that happens to be housing lots of illegal product. At night, obviously. Otherwise I might still take some of them- well, completely down.” Schneider arches a brow at Oliver, urging him to continue. “Well- nobody is able to create earthquakes, are they? Well, aside from me. Considering the only person who knows what I am is you, however- well, nobody can definitively prove that the warehouse was targeted. While we can tell someone within the network before we do it.” 

“The network will realize you’re not a warlock,” Schneider points out. Oliver shrugs his shoulders.

“I doubt they believed that in the first place. Besides- the more powerful they think I am, the more they’ll want to keep us on their good side. I’m more worried about the team, honestly. If we tell them I’ll cause an earthquake- well, like I said. Nobody but me is able to do that.” Schneider cocks his head to the side as he considers Oliver’s idea. 

“I don’t know how to avoid that. I know that they’ll trust us enough not to dig into it if we tell them we’ve got it covered and we actually do. That way they won’t research it and they won’t know it’s a freak earthquake that was the cause of it. We should just brainstorm more ideas, though. Maybe they’ll have something good too,” Schneider eventually responds.

It’s nearly nine when Schneider becomes aware of Richard inside of his head. He calls upstairs to Oliver before taking a seat at the dining table, opening the notepad in front of him. Oliver walks down the stairs in his sweatpants, grabbing the seat opposite to Schneider. 

‘Alright, we’ve been tossing up some ideas but- I’m not really sure any of them are truly going to work,’ Richard says without preamble.

‘Yeah. It’s a difficult situation,’ Schneider agrees. ‘Okay, let’s pitch the ideas. Uh- do we just- you know what, let’s just hear them. I’ll relay them to Oli.” 

‘Alright. So, Till came with the bold idea of setting up a raid with just our team so the moles already present won’t be aware of it. You can be the ones to stop it.’ Schneider repeats the statement out loud to Oliver before he responds (both out loud as well as mentally).

‘That does have the added disadvantage of- how did we know of that? We’re new in this town. Our ‘boss’ has nothing to do in this town. How did we get this information without working with you guys?’

‘Yeah, we came to that stag as well,’ Richard confirms. ‘Not to mention, a raid with just the four of us- I’m not even sure that would save you from their gallows.’

‘Alright, so what’s the next plan?’

‘Flake suggested making a different type of narcotics than the one you already sell. You could explain why you didn’t put it up for trade earlier because you were still feeling the network out, but with the presence of Biggy V became interested in working more closely.’

‘Wouldn’t make too much sense,’ Schneider responds, shaking his head, ‘We’ve barely got a foot in the network. It’d be much easier for us to pull out and find a different network to merge with instead. Not to mention it would take a while to create a second narcotic and there’s only two of us working on it.’

‘Alright- I was considering playing as a mole myself. As in, a mole for vampire clans,’ Schneider can practically hear Richard’s annoyance with the plan, ‘My maker has a foot in this city. He could easily introduce me. Since the network sells vampire-blood based drugs, they will absolutely not mind protecting me from the network. I could stage like a vampire-rebellion against the network.’

“I really don’t think we should create a network/clan war,” Oliver says and he looks alarmed as Schneider relays the plan. Schneider can’t help but nod his agreement. “I mean- that can’t have a different outcome than a lot of bloodshed.”

‘Like I said, none of them are really good,’ Richard agrees. ‘What did you have?’

‘I didn’t really have anything, to be honest. Literally every plan ends up being very suspicious, too much work within the timeframe or with- well, innocent bloodshed.’

‘Like the vampires.’

‘Like the vampires,’ Schneider confirms. ‘Oli did have a plan though. He intends to help the network by eliminating product and information belonging to the network’s competitors. Without casualties, obviously. Except- well, we can’t exactly tell how we would go about that.’ Schneider waits while Richard relays the plan to the rest of the team. Schneider isn’t entirely surprised when none of them ask questions as to how they’re planning to eliminate the product.

‘Paul is asking how you would prove that you were the ones behind it?’

‘Simple. We tell them ahead of time. Let’s just say nobody would make the prediction of what’s going to happen without having a means of making it happen themselves.’ Schneider waits again while Richard relays the answer and they discuss it among themselves. 

‘Alright. Go for it,’ Richard finally responds back. ‘We’ll try and help to ensure nobody realizes who is behind the attacks. Considering I’ll assume it has something to do with Oliver’s mystery.’

‘None of you will research it yourselves?’ 

‘We trust Oli. Besides- it certainly appears that you know what he is, and I trust your judgement. It saved me more than once, after all. Paul likes to jokingly try to find out but- honestly, I think he’ll be disappointed when he finds the answer and the challenge is over.’ 

‘Thanks, Richard,’ Schneider tells him. ‘Alright. We’ll definitely need all day tomorrow to plan and possibly the day after tomorrow too. It’s Tuesday now so- let’s agree we ‘attack’ the competition in the night of Thursday to Friday?’

‘Sounds good.’ Richard confirms. ‘Alright. Good luck, then.’ 

“Alright. We’re going to spend tomorrow and Thursday researching where their product is stored and attack Thursday night,” Schneider informs Oliver. 

“Okay. How do we find out where to- shake things up.” Schneider can’t help but grin at Oliver’s pun. 

“Actually, if I’m not mistaken,” Schneider says, while rummaging through the files on the chair, “Ah, here it is. I’ve already marked some spots I’ve noticed the competition to be active in. We obviously can’t cover everything, since there’s only two of us. Let’s see here.” Schneider considers the map for a moment. He’d marked seven different spots. Three of them are from his preliminary research before the network had reached out to them. The other four are from within the time they’ve functioned in the network. Schneider easily checks those as not the priority. It would make sense for the other network to keep some distance as to have less direct competition. 

“Why did you mark this spot?” Oliver questions, gesturing to one of the three from Schneider’s preliminary research. It’s located at the very edge of town and Schneider had come upon the large building by following one of the competition’s more stupid runners.

“Because the other network is active there. I saw them distributing bags of product while I was still scanning the town for the network’s activity.” Oliver furrows his brows. “Why is that so strange?”

“Because it’s also in one of the files Till gave us when we began to work the case,” Oliver replies, searching through the files until he finds it. When he does, he opens it up and turns it towards Schneider. 

“It’s an ice-rink? Why did they mark it?” 

“Flake suspected our network was producing there. That this is where ‘Blitz’ is made, because it needs to be so cooled. He believed the ice-rink was a cover for the high cooling costs wherever Blitz would be produced.” Schneider furrows his brows, regarding the map carefully for a moment. Then he sighs.

“Okay, I don’t know what to make of that right now. How about we survey from these spots tomorrow, then we’ll leave the ice-rink alone for now. If it’s property of our network they obviously won’t be too happy if we take it out of the picture. We’ll do more research into it once we’ve proven our worth, since that’s a priority right now. Try and be observant of more activity by that network. We do have four more spots we can stake out, but I’m confident we’ll find more helpful resources on this side of town.”

“Of course,” Oliver confirms.


	7. Chapter 7

The following morning both of them leave the apartment early. Neither of them had bothered to dress inconspicuously. Oliver had suggested it, but Schneider had pointed out that a man covered with shifting markings from head to toe and a man missing an eye and several very visible scars wouldn’t exactly blend in in the first place. Besides- the other network is unlikely to know their faces already in the first place, since they weren’t exactly high-end in this town. 

Schneider is sitting on a park-bench, his eye on the corner where he’d marked the previous activity. There’d had already been activity today as well. Schneider had watched four exchanges so far, but all of them had been small dosages of narcotics, likely for personal consumption. Which means he’s seen end-dealers. 

Everything indicates that this park is home to plenty of criminal activity. The lack of kids or people walking their dogs, the badly-kept bushes and lawns, the availability of a total of four ATM’s in a street with barely any shops and, perhaps most importantly, the fact that even the homeless people who’ve walked by have been glancing over their shoulders. Schneider isn’t one to reach for his gun quickly, but he’s ensured he can reach his knife in no time. 

Clearly the two networks within the city operated in a very different circle. The network Schneider and Oliver had infiltrated in legal businesses, dealing with people who lived their daily lives (mostly) legally. And this network, which clearly thrived on more stereotypical kind of customers. 

It takes several hours from when Schneider had first taken seat on the bench before someone finally shows up with a suitcase. They’re dressed like most other people around, but Schneider had already scoped the neighbourhood out before he’d taken his seat. There are no offices around this neighbourhood that would require their employees to bring a suitcase. 

The man pauses before he crosses the street, taking a seat on the edge of the fountain (run-down and currently not in use, if it even works anymore). He glances around, clearly trying to make it look casually. Schneider ensures that it looks like his eye is on his phone rather than the man. This is the one time he hates the lack of his other eye. He’d scan his periphery for someone approaching the man, making Schneider less anxious to look back up before it’s safe. His periphery is limited, however. Still- having lost his eye in only his second year of military service, he’s done more stake-outs without it than he’d done with and he patiently waits until he glances up again. 

Schneider patiently waits while the man types on his phone. He doesn’t remember seeing him anywhere before, though it hardly means he’s not active in the network. After all, so far their research had gone into the network they’re infiltrating. Schneider had merely marked the notes he came across during that investigation. Unless he recognizes the person this man is meeting, it’ll be a risk as to who we should follow. Fortunately he at least doesn’t have long to wait until the man looks up from his phone and appears to see the person he was expecting. Schneider can’t see them from the way they’re approaching, but a moment later a woman steps into view.

Fortunately, Schneider recognizes her. Schneider’s noticed her several times, considering she is, honestly, rather attractive. She too is carrying a briefcase, though her entire demeanour makes it seem far less strange. She’s well-dressed and manicured. If it weren’t for the lack of offices around and the fact Schneider had noticed her before, she wouldn’t look suspicious at all. 

Schneider regards them carefully, but fortunately they seem to be rather sure they won’t be caught. Then again- it doesn’t seem like this area sees much surveillance, given the number of deals that have already gone down on a random Wednesday-morning. They’re clearly familiar with each other and it’s no more than a quick scan of each other’s briefcase before they say their goodbyes. Schneider waits until both of them are out of view before he gets up and makes his way to where the woman had disappeared.  
Fortunately, Schneider can see her immediately, since the first alley wasn’t far enough away for her to have reached it so soon. Unfortunately, however, it’s a calm street given that there’s no shops or offices. There’s a group of women chatting a few yards down as well as a man impatiently walking his dog. Other than that, the rather long street has only the alleys for Schneider to hide, should she look behind her. And diving into alleys- well, it’s not exactly something inconspicuous to do. Instead, he merely walks a safe distance behind her.

The woman briefly walks down a busier street (which Schneider gathers is from the presence of the bakery and supermarket) before she turns into an even more abandoned area. Clearly, this isn’t the most ideal situation he’s ever been in. At least she doesn’t appear worried about the possibility of being followed. She’s only glanced around once in the entire distance Schneider had followed her so far, and he’d easily been able to read her body-language ahead of doing so and had pretended his shoelaces had come loose and had ‘tied’ them between two cars, effectively hiding him from view. 

Again, her body-language gives away the intention to glance around before she does. Now in a completely abandoned area, Schneider doesn’t bother making up an excuse before he hides behind a van. He uses the mirror of the car parked in front of it to ensure she’s looked back in front before he glances round the van, instead of stepping out fully. Given the area they’re in, Schneider wouldn’t be surprised if she was at the end-destination. Indeed, she crosses the street (making Schneider switch the van’s sides) before using a key to open a door. The building looks like an atelier. Schneider takes his phone out and flips it open to type up a quick message about the location of the ‘atelier’. Then he follows the same road back in the hopes of catching more leads. 

“Hallo,” Oliver calls as he steps through the door, carrying two pizza’s he’d called about just minutes earlier. “Pizza delivery. Fresh and hot.” 

“I should hope so. Not sure there’s any delivery as quick as you,” Schneider responds with a grin, accepting the pizza that Oliver hands him. He places it on the table before he refills his glass, grabbing one for Oliver as well. “So, did you find anything interesting?”

“Yes,” Oliver responds, while taking a seat and eagerly opening up the pizza-box. “It would appear as though they have two storage facilities just two streets down from the ice-rink. They’re placed near each other with barely anything in between. If we check if there’s product and information there- well, it’s pretty conveniently located for me to- well, do my thing.” 

“Alright. So when do we check for that?”

“After pizza? I’m keeping my eye on the place. It’s empty at the moment.” 

“It occurs to me we’re at an imbalance here. One of us with just one eye and the other who can just toss an eye somewhere,” Schneider observes. Oliver laughs.

“That’s not how it works. But yes, one of us definitely has the advantage as to pure sight. Yet somehow the other still appears to be able to observe more,” Oliver complains. Schneider gives Oliver a smile. 

“It’s your first undercover job. You’ve barely been actual law-enforcement instead of just a student for a year now. It’s not so strange that I know better what to look out for. You’ll learn,” Schneider encourages him. “But yeah, let’s go after pizza. Then we can ensure someone in the network knows we’re going to be stirring something for the competition.” 

“You almost look like you’re having fun at the thought of it.” 

“I mean- You did mention that I get restless if I don’t have any violent outlets. Although I suppose tomorrow won’t exactly help with that. Considering I can’t exactly help you destroy the building.” Oliver grins at that. They finish up the rest of their pizza in a comfortable silence, before Schneider takes the empty cardboards and tosses them into the bin. 

“You will get nauseous. Here,” Oliver says, handing Schneider a bag. Schneider arches a brow, but he grabs the bag so that he can vomit into it, should he need to. Then Oliver places his hand on Schneider’s shoulder and- a hell of a mighty tug before he lurches through space. And space clearly doesn’t care for how his body is supposed to shift and turn. It only lasts a moment but Schneider still, as Oliver predicted, becomes mightily nauseous because of it. He gags a few times before he manages to control it and stops doing so. 

“How do you stay so calm and collected when you do this?” Schneider asks, aware of even his voice having taken a beating. 

“Gets easier the more you do. Besides- I think one of us has a body that can endure a bit more,” Oliver responds, shrugging his shoulders. “Come on. Let’s go see what’s here,” he adds, holding out a hand to pull Schneider up to his feet. Schneider takes it, then has to hold on for a few paces before he regains his balance. 

“Right. I would say no more travelling through space for me but- I’m afraid it’s a retour journey, isn’t it?” 

“Well- you can walk back, but you’d be walking a while,” Oliver grins. Schneider shakes his head but can’t quite contain the smile that curls his lips. Then he brushes the small-talk off and they both get to looking. Schneider takes the first door to his left, while Oliver does the same on the right side. 

The first room appears to be uninteresting. It’s an office, yes, but there’s definitely no product there, no money and no significant amount of files. There’s just some information about which deals had gone down the past month, but Schneider isn’t too bothered with that. After all, chances are the local law-enforcement had that already covered. They weren’t exactly subtle. The second room proves even less interesting. Some sort of breakroom/kitchen combination. Nothing there but food, drinks, garbage and a magazine someone must’ve brought in to read. He’s about to walk into the third room when Oliver calls out. 

“What’s up?” Schneider asks, walking into the room he locates Oliver in. Then his eyes widen before Oliver can answer. “That’s- either this network is bigger than we thought or they’re stupid enough to store their complete inventory of narcotics here.” Schneider recognizes all of them, since it’s the common narcotics that are based off supernatural substances. There’s boxes upon boxes of V in caps, Schneider estimates it to be at least 200 litres. There’s also plenty of FD, the powder neatly packaged in brick-formations and probably weighing in at nearly a 150 kilos. Those two being the most popular, the remaining types of narcotics are stored in lesser quantities, ranging about 30-70 kilos per kind. 

“Well- I don’t think they’re bigger than we asked, look, there’s a distribution map here,” Oliver calls out, having stepped to one of the kinds. Indeed, Schneider realizes that stupidly enough they added a map to each of the stashes.

“My god, how did they even manage to get set up here with this level of stupidity?” Schneider groans. “Alright. Guess that we’re just going to tear it down, then. Or- you will.” Schneider makes a face. “We need to find us a pixie nest.” It invites a laugh from Oliver. 

“Well- I could teleport you to one.” 

“I hate you,” Schneider merely drawls. 

“Come on. I think we’ve got enough, here. All that’s left is to make our plan known to the network.” Schneider nods, dreading it when he feels Oliver’s hand on his shoulder. He clutches the bag tightly before the same violent tug reaches for him again and space once again treats him like a boxing-ball. This time, when he’s released from it, it doesn’t stay at gagging. He actually vomits instead. 

“I’m never taking deity express again,” Schneider groans when he finally manages to. Instead of a response, Oliver merely massages Schneider’s shoulder and hands him the glass of water Schneider had heard him grabbing through his heaves. “I’m going to brush my teeth. You pick a movie,” Schneider suggests once he’s drank up the water. Oliver’s markings had been shifty all day, and even without it Schneider would’ve kept his friend occupied tonight. He has a feeling Oliver is both unhappy about doing it in the first place as well as unhappy about the idea someone might realize what he is. 

When Schneider makes his way over to the living room, Oliver has already put the movie on, though he has it paused, and there’s drinks (alcohol-free, given tomorrow is an important day) as well as popcorn on the table. Schneider takes a seat, glancing to see that Oliver had chosen an action comedy to watch tonight. He presses play without reading through the summary too much, then settles onto the couch to watch. At least- that had been the initial plan. And that’s what he more or less does for the first twenty   
minutes of the movie, ignoring the way Oliver’s markings shift and twist from the corner of his eye. 

“We’re either changing spots or you’re going to calm down,” Schneider finally remarks, pressing pause on the movie. Oliver raises his eyebrow in surprise for a moment, then glances down to follow Schneider’s eye and see his markings shift.

“Sorry. I can put on a sweater,” Oliver gets up, presumably to do just that. Schneider sighs and grabs Oliver’s wrist before he steps out of reach. 

“That’s not what I meant, Oli. You’re nervous. Is it because of tomorrow?” Oliver shifts on his feet a little uneasily. “It is,” Schneider realizes. He gives a tug on Oliver’s wrist until the other man takes the hint and resumes his seat. “You shouldn’t worry too much about what happens tomorrow. We’ll both be there to ensure the building is empty.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” Oliver quietly says after a long moment of silence. “Given the impact of it on the network we’re in- I very sincerely doubt the SUI won’t be researching it. They will be researching it. I don’t want them to know what I am. You- you took it well. And I’m not saying they wouldn’t- I think at least some of them are aware that some things just need to be done. I’m just not ready to face that risk. This is the first time since I became what I am that I’ve felt- normal and accepted. The others at school never- I was always an outsider. I don’t want to feel like that again.”

“With everything going on between the moles and the presence of Biggy V, I doubt investigating this will be on the forefront of the SUI’s mind. I’m not saying they won’t investigate it- I just very sincerely don’t think our team will be put on that case. They were transported in for a reason. They’re too valuable to waste on this. If someone will investigate before we’re done being undercover, it’ll be someone of the SUI here. They don’t know that we will be behind the attack. And they likely won’t even realize what on earth caused the accident in the first place.”

“What if they send in our team exactly for the reason that they’re valuable? That the SUI here realizes that something is up in regards to the attack and they believe that it might be connected?” 

“Then our team will debate that’s not the case. Richard assured me that they wouldn’t research the attack. They have no desire to force you to tell what you are. And before you bring up Paul- he sees it as a game more than anything serious. Richard and I both believe he’ll be very disappointed when the game is over. So, no, not even Paul will protest in favour of researching it.” 

“I got very lucky the captain assigned me to this team, didn’t I?” Oliver asks with a slight smile. Schneider grins, happy to realize that Oliver’s markings have calmed down too. It’s a good indication that Oliver is feeling a bit better too. 

“Well- it’s got me in it. Of course you got lucky.” 

“Fair point,” Oliver acknowledges. Then, without much warning, he leans forward to press his lips to Schneider’s. Schneider is honestly too surprised to react, but his face must surely show his surprise when Oliver draws back, a mere moment after their lips touched in the first place. 

“You’re far too shy to do that,” Schneider states. 

“Well- yeah. I thought you were leaning in, honestly,” Oliver admits with a sheepish expression. “I just thought- I thought there was a chance I’d escaped my box. Because- well, recently you’ve just felt closer, somehow.” Schneider considers Oliver for a moment. There’s no denying the stubborn man had been escaping his box. Schneider just- hadn’t thought he was signalling anything. He’d mentally been putting off that conversation with himself until after they’d stopped being undercover. Then again- Paul had always said that Schneider wore his heart on his sleeve once they became friends. Which means that he might have signalled it subconsciously. 

“I- might have leant in,” Schneider admits eventually, mostly because Oliver’s markings are begging to shift again. “You have escaped your box, but I- didn’t realize I was acting like it yet. I mean- we’re undercover.”

“And?” Oliver asks. “Any information they gave us still checks out. Regardless of whether we might be more than just colleagues. I mean- we are two adult men who supposedly have a pretty high rank in our own network. I’m sure our characters could afford two separate places to live. And considering you noticed them trailing us here- well, they could’ve guessed as much anyway.” 

“Huh,” Schneider hums. “Well- you may be right about that, now that I think about it.” Oliver gives a smug grin and Schneider rolls his eyes. “Oh, wipe that smile off your face. It’s not as if I ever partnered up for undercover work before,” Schneider grumbles. That just makes Oliver’s smug smile grow. Schneider rolls his eye before he leans forward to kiss the smug smile away instead. 

Oliver is clearly less surprised than Schneider himself was. He reacts quickly to the pressure of Schneider’s lips against his own, moving gently but firmly. Schneider follows his movements obediently, leaning in when Oliver places his hand along Schneider’s cheek. The kiss is long and tender, and Schneider reluctantly pulls back when the need for oxygen becomes too much. 

“You’re a good kisser.” Schneider honestly doesn’t mean to sound so surprised. With Oliver’s shy nature, however, and the nearly five year age gap, Schneider simply expected Oliver to be somewhat less experienced. Fortunately, Oliver seems amused rather than offended by the surprise. 

“Well- I was a musician for several years. Doesn’t take much for a musician to get laid. But I am happy that you’re pleasantly surprised. Since, you know- most of those instances I was rather drunk,” Oliver chuckles a little. Schneider grins before he leans forward to place a quick peck on Oliver’s cheek, then retracts before the other man can react, pressing play on the movie with a smirk. Which Oliver promptly rolls his eyes at, though he’s still smiling broadly. 

Oliver’s nerves before their talk yesterday-evening are nothing in the face of Oliver’s nerves now, while they’re eating breakfast. Oliver is sitting at the kitchen table, playing with his cornflakes more than eating them and for a change Schneider doesn’t need his markings to give him away, because he’s actively tapping his feet and drumming his fingers. Then again- he does have his markings and together with everything else, they’re practically making Schneider seasick. Which- honestly- the irony of the God of the Oceans making Schneider seasick isn’t lost on him. Still, he sighs before he actually reaches forward to place his hand over Oliver’s to keep him from drumming his fingers. 

“You’re one to talk. You can hardly ever hold still for more than a few seconds,” Oliver counters when he realizes why Schneider did that. 

“Yes, but I move one limb at a time and am not entirely covered by markings that are honestly making me dizzy just looking at them right now,” Schneider protests. Then he sighs, “What is it? What you have to do tonight, the fact that we kissed yesterday evening or something else entirely?” 

“I’m not nervous by the fact that we kissed. Like I said yesterday- I had a feeling that it was going to happen eventually,” Oliver quickly protests. The lack of his nerves calming (and the visibility of that) makes Oliver make a face before he sighs and quietly continues. “It’s what I have to do tonight. I- it’s just that I’ve never- the abilities that come with my specific domain- I’ve never used them voluntarily before. I was always so uncomfortable with the fact that I could do it in the first place. Not to mention that they cause- well, nothing good. I hate the fact that I’m able to do in the first place. And now tonight- it’s going to be the first time I use it from a place of self-interest as apposed to just keeping the balance. Keeping the balance feels so terrible. How can I ever use them from self-interest?” 

“You have used them before though,” Schneider points out. It just makes Oliver look very confused. “In fact, you’ve used them the very first time I met you. Of course- I didn’t realize the implication. Nor did any of the team, since I believe you’ve used it near everyone except for Flake. Gnomes- underground. You widen the passages so we can reach them. I mean- I’ll assume you do that by accessing your abilities, right?” 

“Yeah,” Oliver sounds like he hadn’t realized that before either. “I- it’s different though,” he quickly adds, shaking his head. “Widening the passages- it doesn’t hurt anybody. Doesn’t destroy anything. And I fix it back up when we’re back above ground. This- it’s different. It’s me making the decision to damage something. Something specific that helps me.”

“Yeah, and I get that it’s a big step. I’m just saying- it might not be as big a step as you believe. You have used your abilities before. The entire team has seen you use your abilities, so even if you’re still worried about them researching anything, they won’t think too strangely about it. Besides,” Schneider pauses for a moment before he continues, “You are what you are, Oli. What you have been for a few years now. Aside from death, nothing is going to change that. And as far as I can tell, deities are very extremely difficult to kill, so I don’t see that happening anytime too soon. It’s okay to use your abilities for yourself.” 

“What if it’s just a stepping stone?” Oliver asks, still very quiet and now glancing at his lap to avoid looking at Schneider. “I- when I just became Poseidon, I refused to use my abilities at all. Mere weeks after my transformation, I was told to- to cause an earthquake in Indonesia. And I flat-out refused. Never even considered doing what they asked. Because earthquakes cause deaths, and I absolutely wanted no part in it. At first they not-so-friendly reminded me weekly to cause it. Then daily. Eventually they just beat me into giving in. And for every incident I had to cause for the first two years, the process would be similar. And now- I hate what I have to do, but I do it. As soon as the warning signs come up that something needs to be caused, I do it. Without any hesitation. Because I know it needs to be done. The person I was eight years ago would be really disgusted with that.” Schneider remains silent for a moment, before he squares his jaw and places his finger under Oliver’s chin, making the other man look up at him.

“It’s not the most terrible thing not to lay awake about actions that you need to do every night. In fact- I believe my psychologist might say that it’s safe, to an extent. They may not state so outright, but when I was in the Iraq, they told me to compartmentalize. Because if I had to worry about every life my decisions might take- I’d go crazy. Now- I may not have to make the same decisions, but- I doubt psychologists would want you to suffer like that either.” 

“Possibly,” Oliver doesn’t sound very convinced. 

“Are you sure you want to go through with it?” Oliver at least nods that yes, he does want that. “Alright. How about I go speak to the network alone. It doesn’t matter if you’re not there. I’m human, they’ll know it wasn’t me to how did it anyway. But before I leave- I’m going to draw you a nice hot bath with nice scents and I’m going to put cookies next to it and while I’m gone, you’re going to relax in there. Deal?” 

“Sitting in a bath will help me to relax?” 

“Who knows. But keeping busy certainly doesn’t seem to do the trick.” Oliver grins a little in acknowledgement to that, at least. “Besides, who knows- you might fall asleep or something. That way a few hours will pass with you being relaxed.”

“I thought you weren’t supposed to fall asleep in a bath?” 

“Us mere humans? Nope, we’re not. I’ll assume given your domain, however, that you won’t drown. And since you’re temperature resistant anyway- hypothermia won’t be an issue either.” 

“Mh- would be something, wouldn’t it? Poseidon- death by drowning. In a bathtub.” Oliver looks very sheepish while saying it and Schneider smiles. At the joke too, but mostly the fact that he’s acknowledging who he is without a hesitation in front or after it for a change. After all- the first step to making peace with something, is acceptance. 

“I’ll see if I can a snorkel for you somewhere,” Schneider jokes back. Then he gets up from the kitchen table, putting their bowls and spoons in the sink before he goes upstairs, drawing the bath like he said he would.


End file.
